Austrian National Union of Students
Encyclopedia
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
: Österreichische Hochschülerinnen- und Hochschülerschaft, short ÖH) is the general students' representative body in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
and serves as the students' government by federal law. The ÖH is member of European Students' Union.
Membership in the ÖH is compulsory for every university student
Student
A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...
in Austria, including PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
candidates.
Structure
The statutes of the ÖH are regulated in a federal law, the "Hochschülerinnen und Hochschülerschaftsgesetz" (HSG).The Students Union is structured into:
- Studienvertretung: board of representatives for each study (or group of related studies). It consist of typically 5 members. person-based direct election.
- Universitätsvertretung: board of universityUniversityA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
students representatives. list based direct election. - Bundesvertretung: National Board of the ÖH. It is elected (mainly) by the university boards.
Biannually, there are general elections. Turnout declined from about 70 % in 1965 to 28.29 % in the elections of 2007.
The HSG also includes regulations on the funding of the ÖH and its parts and the duties and rights of the students representatives.
History
- 1945: foundation of the ÖH
- 1946: first general election
- 1947: ÖH becomes a public statutory body
- 1950: ÖH obtains the right to formally examine laws concerning education
- 1952: first demonstration against student fees
- 1959: the ÖH establishes the Austrian Student Aid FoundationAustrian Student Aid FoundationThe Austrian Student Aid Foundation is the second largest carrier of student housing in Austria....
(also: home4students) - 1962: one week strike
- 1973, 1975: strengthening of the position of the ÖH by new laws
- 1996, 2000, 2002, 2004 and especially in 2010 and 2011: demonstrations against various steps of loss of social benefits for students and legal restrictions of students representation.
See also
- European Students' Union (ESU), of which ÖH is a member.
- EURODOCEurodocEurodoc is the European federation of national organisations of young researchers. Young researchers are the ones currently undertaking their doctorate or PhD holders in their first years of their post-doctoral research career .As a non-profit organisation,...
European Council of doctoral candidates and junior researchers. ÖH is a member. - Students' UnionStudents' unionA students' union, student government, student senate, students' association, guild of students or government of student body is a student organization present in many colleges and universities, and has started appearing in some high schools...
External links
- ÖH English Homepage
- platform for doctoral candidates, in cooperation with the ÖH
- Official Website of home4students - Austrian Student Aid Foundation