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Austrian Students' Association

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Austrian Students' Union
Österreichische Hochschülerinnen-
und Hochschülerschaft
Agency overview
Formed1945; 80 years ago (1945) as Österreichische Hochschülerschaft
HeadquartersTaubstummengasse 7–9
Vienna
Annual budgetca. 15,8 million Euro (2022)[1]
Agency executive
  • Keya Baier
Parent departmentMinistry of Education (Austria)
Websitewww.oeh.ac.at

The Austrian Students' Union by statutory body (German: Österreichische Hochschülerinnen- und Hochschülerschaft, ÖH) is the general students' representative body in Austria and serves as the students' government by federal law. The ÖH is a member of the European Students' Union.

Membership in the ÖH is compulsory for every university student in Austria, including PhD candidates.

Structure

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The statutes of the ÖH are regulated in a federal law, the "Hochschülerinnen und Hochschülerschaftsgesetz" (HSG).[2]

The Students Union is structured into:

  • Studienvertretung: board of representatives for each study (or group of related studies). It consists of typically 5 members. person-based direct election.
  • Fakultätsstudienvertretung
  • Universitätsvertretung: board of university 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

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  • 1945: foundation of the ÖH[3]
  • 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 Foundation (also: home4students)[4]
  • 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

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References

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  1. ^ "ANNUAL ESTIMATES & ANNUAL ACCOUNTS".
  2. ^ "Federal Act on the Student Representative Organisations (Students' Union Act 2014 – HSG 2014)". www.ris.bka.gv.at (Legal Information System of the Republic of Austria). Retrieved 2020-04-14.
  3. ^ "Die Geschichte der Hochschülerschaft". DER STANDARD (in Austrian German). Retrieved 2023-05-12.
  4. ^ "Geschichte der Universität Wien – CHRONOLOGISCHER ÜBERBLICK". 2013-11-05. Archived from the original on 2013-11-05. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
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