wolfgang hofkirchner

i’m a defender of the traditional social-democratic principle of unrestricted access to university education. i myself studied when social democrats opened the universities to less well-educated social classes, the working class, farmers, and, last not least, women. in the aftermath of the establishment of the neoliberal regimes worldwide, there is also a rollback in education policies. in austria the social origin again determines whether or not you study (the proportion of children of university graduates among students is about 2,5 times higher than the proportion of university graduates among the population). the overall proportion of university graduates is significantly below (about 20 %) the oecd average (about 36 %). this holds for the proportion of new university entrants among high school grads too (about 37 % vs. about 54 %).

in that situation policymakers consider the introduction of obligatory qualifying exams. the high school grad shall not qualify for the entrance into university any more. the problem we face, however, is rather the allocation of funds than too many prospective students. university education as well as education in general do not obtain priority. thus in many studies the teacher/student ratio has been decreasing. world class quality cannot be achieved. instead of upgrading university education is dismantled, step by step.

the faculty of informatics at the vienna university of technology – which, admittedly, suffers from a very bad teacher/student ratio – seems to lead that way. for the next semester two hurdles are prepared for those who want to start an informatics study. first, beginners will have to write a motivation letter and, second, if that letter is accepted, they have to undergo a 30 min talk with 2 professors, that is, they have to justify their motivation. if and only if they have passed the second hurdle they can expect to get a positive grade in the subsequent course (given the mark for the test which might be a multiple choice test is positive), that is, the motivation letter and the talk are defined as essential parts of the exam of the course in question.

to be clear, what is envisaged is not (only) a match between the students’ expectations and the profile of the study we teachers can present to them. the hidden agenda is to decrease the number of beginners. that’s why letter and talk take the form of exams.

what about the possible results of that measure besides reducing student numbers in informatics?

– i fear that the measure will result in a decrease of the number of university graduates among the austrian population;
– i fear that the result will be another shift at the cost of students coming from less well-educated social classes, because due to our school system (which does not prioritise integrated schools) the task of writing and defending a motivation letter will be more difficult for them than for others;
– i fear that the measure will, in the long run, endanger the position of the teachers themselves, since the argument for more funds will not hold anymore.

this is not to say that i am against qualifying exams at all. if you make an application for a salaried phd position, such an exam is a must. but in the case described above, it’s not a job interview. it’s just the right to start at university with any bachelor study.