Austrian Students’ Union
This page is dedicated to explaining the relation between the Fachschaft Doktorat, the HTU and the ÖH.
The Fachschaft Doktorat consists of many commited predocs, five of them are also the official student representatives for doctoral programs at the TU Wien – elected every two years by all doctoral candidates. These five represantatives are the study representation according to the HSG. The law provides for the representation not only on program level, but also on university and federal level. The students’ representations are organs of the representation at university level. The national representation is an organ of the ÖH. In everday language, “ÖH” is used to summarize all the representations on different levels according to the HSG. The word will be used accordingly in the following.
The ÖH is a democratically elected representation. Elections are held in each odd year, typically in May. During these elections one can vote for three of altogether four levels of the ÖH: The program (or study) representation, the representation at university level and the representation at national level. The representations at faculty level (not existing for doctoral programs) is delegated by the representations at study level. Doctoral candidates who are enrolled in a doctoral program on a fixed date (usually the last day of March) are entitled to vote.
If you have ever wondered what the ÖH fee is that you pay each semester, it is because all students are members of the ÖH. 15 % of the fee remain at national level. The rest of the money is transfered back to the local representations, in our case the HTU. The latter distributes the money according to certain rules to the students’ representations, the departments of the HTU, representations at faculty level, etc. The money is spent on maintaining the infrastructure of the program representation, used for financing projects of students, training of members, and many other stuff.
In the following you find a brief synopsis of the responsibilities of the different levels of the ÖH that are relevant for doctoral candidates.
Program Representation
The students’ representation for doctoral programs represents the interests of doctoral candidates at the TU Wien. This comprises the counselling of doctoral candidates, participation in the curricular commission, contact professors and the works council (Betriebsrat). The election of program representatives is a personal election; five persons are to be elected.
The students’ representatives are members of the Fachschaft Doktorat at the same time, which is open for all doctoral candidates. Decisions are made by everyone involved in the Fachschaft, not just by the elected representatives. The elections legitimize the representatives, which makes the described decision making-process possible.
University Representation
The representation at university level represents all the students of the TU Wien. This comprises participation in the university senate, the counselling regarding topics like scholarships, contact with the rectorate, and the ministry responsible for science and research. The election for the representation at university level is a list election. According to the result, the currently 17 seats are proportionally distributed among the different lists.
National Representation
The representation at national level represents all students in Austria. This comprises counselling, communication with the Austrian government and other policymakers. The election for the representation at national level is also a list election. According to the result, the 55 seats are proportionally distributed among the different lists.
The Fachschaft Doktorat is in constant contact with the different levels of the ÖH.