New Science Minister Faces Student Unrest

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 VIENNA 000106

SIPDIS, SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: TSPL TNGD PINR KSCA TBIO TPHY AU EUN
SUBJECT: New Science Minister Faces Student Unrest

REF: 2009 Vienna 1534

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Sensitive but unclassified -- protect accordingly.


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On January 25, the GoA appointed Beatrix Karl as
its new science minister. Like her predecessor Johannes Hahn -- who
left to become European Commissioner for Regional Policy (reftel)
-- Karl is a university law professor and a member of the
conservative People's Party (OeVP). Karl faces daunting challenges
to revitalize a beleaguered university system full of rebelling
students and to restructure a generous but entrenched system for
funding research. END SUMMARY.

Biographic Background
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2. (SBU) Beatrix Karl is both an academic and a party politician.
Karl was born on December 10, 1967 in Graz. She received both her
master's in jurisprudence (1991) and her doctorate (1995) at the
Karl-Franzens University in Graz, with a dissertation on labor
welfare issues in Upper Austria. She has worked at the university's
Labor and Social Law department since 1991, becoming an assistant
professor in 2001 and associate professor in 2003. From 1999 to
2002, Karl was an Austrian Academy of Science Fellow at the Max
Planck Institute for Foreign and International Social Law in Munich.
She has also served on the advisory committee of the Pedagogical
University of Styria.


3. (SBU) Karl began her rather recent political career in 2005, when
she became a member of the European Committee of Social Rights at
the Council of Europe, an assignment she held until 2007. In
November 2006, she was elected a member of parliament for the
conservative OeVP; she was reelected in September 2008. In 2008,
Karl became OeVP science spokeswoman in Parliament; in 2009, she
became general secretary of the Austrian Worker's Association (a
conservative labor federation representing primarily civil
servants).

Student Protests to Continue
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4. (U) Party leaders had a tough time finding a strong candidate to
succeed Johannes Hahn, since the job represents a political
nightmare due to the current student uprising. Austria's public
university system has suffered for years from underfunding and a
dilapidated infrastructure, problems exacerbated by recent influx of
foreign students. Over the past ten years, student enrollment has
risen by 26%, with the greatest increase coming after tuition fees
were abolished a year ago (a 2008 campaign promise by Social
Democrats). With no tuition fees and non-selective admissions,
Austria has attracted a wave of German enrollees who now make up 7%
of the student population. In response to overcrowding and
underfunding, university students across Austria demonstrated
regularly in late 2009, with students occupying the University of
Vienna for several months. Students were further angered in
December, when conservatives proposed bringing back tuition fees as
a way to raise money and curb enrollment.


5. (U) Students express disappointment with Karl's appointment ("a
provocation") since Karl advocates reintroducing of fees. Austrian
Student Union official Thomas Wallerberger warned "there will be no
honeymoon for the new minister" and called on Karl to grow the
budget for universities by 2% of GDP (COMMENT: an completely
unrealistic demand given Austria's budget gap). Student groups
warned there will be massive demonstrations when Austria hosts the
Bologna Ministerial Anniversary Conference in Vienna on March 12,
intended to celebrate the "Bologna Process" which introduced EU-wide
bachelor and master degree standards (but disliked by most Austrian
students and professors).

Other Reactions
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6. (U) The response of the scientific community to Karl's
appointment has been tepid. Hahn left without finished a proposed
"research financing law" and researchers wonder whether the new
minister will help or hurt their projects/institutions. Physicist
Anton Zeilinger at Vienna University called on Karl to follow her
predecessor in strengthening scientific excellence in Austria. The
Social Democrats (SPOe) are generally supportive of Karl's
appointment: science spokeswoman Andrea Kuntzl said her party would
engage in "constructive cooperation" with Karl in tackling
universities' "huge challenges." By contrast, far-right extremist
and Freedom Party (FPOe) science spokesman Martin Graf said no other
ministry was as chaotic as the science ministry: "She will need a
lot of elan [and money] to deal with problems there."

COMMENT
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7. (SBU) While Karl is likely to face recurrent student unrest as
science minister, she has insider knowledge of the university system
and labor negotiations that should help her to address its

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shortcomings. However there is no indication that she will be a
particularly strong supporter of funding for R&D. END COMMENT.

EACHO