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From Abroad

Studying in Austria is different in many ways. I will embellish on some of the differences in this blog. Today I want to focus on students and funding their desired studies.

Often, Europe generally and Austria specially are envied for their sophisticated social security system. This does not only include health care and retirement funds but also education. Right now there is a massive discussion going on back home, if tuition should be abolished. And even if they decide to keep it, it still would be somehow affordable. At present, tuition I Austria is about 500 Dollar per semester for public universities. And all major universities are public.

So tuition isn’t really a problem. Furthermore, you might be surprised to hear, that it is waived for students whose parents have a low income. Just like mine who own a farm. In total about 1/3 of Austria’s student fall in this category. And they are not just exempt from tuition, they also receive federal student grant. Consequence: the ministry of education transfers money on my account. Every month. For almost five years, now. Pretty neat, isn’t it? The other side of the coin is the much higher tax burden in Austria!

So I guess, it’s just a different system with advantages and disadvantages. One of the biggest disadvantages in my opinion is the following. A university is basically funded by federal money; they don’t really depend on student’s tuition. Hence, they don’t really have to care that much about the students as WVU has to. It happened several times to me that professors didn’t show up at classes didn’t provide a syllabi or proper lecture notes. I have the impression, that this is much better organized here in Morgantown. On the other hand, I finish my studies without receiving money from my parents or making debts. Don’t know which system is better. Would be great if one could combine advantages of both systems – zero or low tuition and high quality classes!