2023-10-01 08:00:43
Universities are threatened with staff cuts due to inflation
Vienna (OTS) – There is still a huge gap in the universities’ budget for 2024, and the agreement for the three-year budget from 2025 to 2027 must be in place in four weeks – by the end of October. In this difficult phase of budget negotiations, Oliver Vitouch takes over the chairmanship of the University Conference.
Universities are threatened with dismantling
The discussions regarding the coming three-year budget are extremely difficult given the trend in inflation. Universities are personnel-intensive, have no scope for price adjustments and can therefore only compensate for cost increases by cutting teaching and research. The current three-year budget might not be maintained due to inflation. It earmarked a total of 12.3 billion euros for universities for the years 2022 to 2024, but record inflation quickly made the numbers a waste of time. This year, underfunding had to be remedied with the help of reserves and grants. The universities are missing 525 million euros for 2024. There is still no commitment from the finance minister. If the money doesn’t come, it will inevitably lead to job losses, warns outgoing uniko president Sabine Seidler.
Taking inflation into account, the universities have identified a need of 16 billion euros for the years 2025 to 2027 in order to stabilize the status quo. There is also the virulent issue of doctor salaries. The federal government’s self-imposed goals such as: B. better rankings of domestic universities in the global one Times-Ranking would require an additional billion per year. Finance and science ministers must agree on the new three-year budget for universities by the end of October.
Damage to the location
The 22 public universities looked following around 280,000 students in the 2022/23 academic year and employed 63,000 people in research, teaching and administration (40,000 full-time equivalents). Austria’s universities are also strong partners for the economy. 49 percent of innovation-active domestic large companies and 27 percent of SMEs cooperate with universities; the EU average is only 33 and 16 percent, respectively. “This means that Austria is clearly above the European average for cooperation intensity,” says a WIFO study on the economic effects of universities. Only Finland is even better in this regard. The study also points to the importance of universities for location and the labor market: “International, research-active companies in particular prefer to locate near universities.”
Vitouch: Dank an Seidler
Oliver Vitouch, psychologist and cognitive scientist, has been rector of the University of Klagenfurt since 2012. Vitouch was president of uniko from 2016 to 2017 and has been its vice president since then. Vitouch thanks outgoing President Sabine Seidler for her extraordinary commitment: “Sabine Seidler was at the head of the University Conference for almost four years. Very few people are aware of what an effort it is to have the dual role of rector (of the Vienna University of Technology) and uniko president. COVID pandemic, inflation and energy crisis, budget crisis: Sabine Seidler had to steer the ship through stormy seas. Thank you very much for the brave time on the bridge! We would all like things to slowly calm down once more.” From October 1st Vitouch is executive president of uniko.
In December the Presidium will be re-elected for a two-year term.
Questions & Contact:
Mag. Elizabeth Fiorioli
Secretary General
www.uniko.ac.at +43 1 310 56 56-0
1696148156
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