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Students’ Association downplays Austrian university rankings
By Lisa Chapman
Austrian students have slammed university rankings in a top education publication which had only one Austrian university in its top 200.
The Austrian Association of Students at Institutions of Higher Education (ÖH) criticised the "Times Higher Education World University Ranking" in which Vienna University ranked only 132nd - down from 115th last year.
ÖH board member Thomas Wallerberger said yesterday (Thurs) evening: "Rankings are the least of our problems. One can only question the quality criteria used to compile these rankings. The heavy weight given to peer reviews without bothering to include students’ opinions makes no sense."
And ÖH board member Sigrid Maurer said People’s Party (ÖVP) Science Minister Johannes Hahn had been wrong yesterday to attribute Vienna University’s fall in the rankings to its failure to limit admissions and to the absence of student tuition or fees.
Maurer said: "Hahn simply doesn’t perceive the problem. We need more professors, not fewer, if we are to improve our international rankings."
She claimed Austrian universities were being starved financially.
Hahn said yesterday it would be a mistake to over-estimate the importance of the rankings.
He added: "The reality is that the abolition of student fees has resulted in a run on Austrian universities, and we are beginning the new semester with a significant growth in the number of their students."
Vienna University Rector Georg Winckler said yesterday after the rankings had been released that Austria badly needed an excellence in education programme similar to Germany’s and the quality of research and teaching at Austrian universities was in dire need of improvement.
He claimed universities in Germany and Switzerland that had risen in the rankings this year reflected positive changes in education policy in those countries.
Austrian politicians, Winckler said, needed to address the state of higher education in the country rather than content themselves with talk about access to universities and university fees.
He stressed he feared Vienna University would fall again in the rankings next year as the abolition of fees for most of its students would increase their number from 70,000 to 80,000. He added its budget was "insufficient."
The Austrian parliament abolished university fees in September 2008.
Vienna Technical University and Innsbruck University, both of which were in the top 200 last year, disappeared from the rankings.
Harvard University in the USA was first again this year, and Germany and Switzerland had ten and seven universities, respectively, in the top 200, with many ranked higher this year than last.
Austrian Times
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problems similar Austrian university Switzerland Hahn education abolition Rector students rankings Germany ranked Maurer Vienna Winckler teaching fees quality Students
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