The Austrian Students' Union by statutory body (, ÖH) is the general students' representative body in
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
and serves as the students' government by federal law. The ÖH is a member of the
European Students' Union
The European Students' Union (ESU) is the umbrella organisation of 44 national unions of students from 40 countries, representing almost 20 million students. A consultative member of the Bologna Process, ESU is also a full member of the Europe ...
.
Membership in the ÖH is compulsory for every university
student
A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution, or more generally, a person who takes a special interest in a subject.
In the United Kingdom and most The Commonwealth, commonwealth countries, a "student" attends ...
in Austria, including
PhD
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
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 consists of typically 5 members. person-based direct election.
* ''Fakultätsstudienvertretung''
* ''Universitätsvertretung'': board of
university
A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
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
An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...
. 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
A statute is a law or formal written enactment of a legislature. Statutes typically declare, command or prohibit something. Statutes are distinguished from court law and unwritten law (also known as common law) in that they are the expressed wil ...
body
* 1950: ÖH obtains the right to formally examine laws concerning education
* 1952: first demonstration against
student fee
A student fee or student activity fee is a fee charged to students at a school, college, university or other place of learning that is in addition to any matriculation and/or tuition fees. It may be charged to support student organizations and ...
s
* 1959: the ÖH establishes the
Austrian Student Aid Foundation (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
The European Students' Union (ESU) is the umbrella organisation of 44 national unions of students from 40 countries, representing almost 20 million students. A consultative member of the Bologna Process, ESU is also a full member of the Europe ...
(ESU), of which ÖH is a member.
*
EURODOC European Council of doctoral candidates and junior researchers. ÖH is a member.
*
Students' Union
A students' union or student union, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, organizat ...
References
External links
ÖH English Homepage
Non-profit organisations based in Austria
National postgraduate representative bodies
Groups of students' unions
Education in Austria
Student organisations in Austria
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