Almost half back student protests (Ten austrian universities occupied) [View All]

[zwielicht]

Source: Austrian Times

Forty-two per cent said that student protests were justified. Twenty eight per cent said they were not and a third of the 850 people questioned had no opinion. In the poll only 22 per cent said graduates of universities or other institutions of higher education had a good chance of finding suitable jobs, whereas 61 per cent said they had little chance of doing so. Businessmen, professors, journalists and politicians in 75 interviews said there were parallels between protests in the 1960s and current student unrest. Ninety-one per cent of the experts said students had a need for better education given anxiety about the future, and 84 per cent said student protests were a reason to fight for new educational goals. Meanwhile, Austrian students are continuing protest activities across the country.

ÖH heads Thomas Wallerberger and Sigi Maurer explained the recent protests, saying: "The students have had enough," stressing they were unhappy about the "catastrophic circumstances students are confronted with when studying at Austrian universities." They criticised the "constant threat of new restrictions" and called for a new structure of the Bachelor/Master studying system as well as for the abolition of study fees for people from non-EU countries. Organisers of the occupation of the Vienna University’s Audimax claimed their topics as presented on the online platform "Uni brennt!" (The University’s on Fire) – http://unibrennt.at – had become one of the most popular websites on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Read more: http://austriantimes.at/news/General_News/2009-11-02/17719/Almost_half_back_student_protests

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For up to two weeks now, large halls in most Austrian universities are governed by an explosive self-organized grassroots democracy.

More information in English:

http://unsereuni.at/?lang=en
http://www.emancipating-education-for-all.org/content/academy-arts-vienna-occupied
http://de.indymedia.org/2009/10/264499.shtml
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=163329887062&v=info