Thousands of student demonstrated in Vienna and other Austrian towns Wednesday, calling for better conditions at their universities.Protesters at Vienna University issued an open letter to the government, calling for free access to higher education and more funding.
Their protests were a reaction to Science Ministry plans to reintroduce tuition fees and restrict access to universities. Besides the several thousand that Vienna police said were demonstrating in Austria's capital, around five hundred students marched through Salzburg.
Universities in Graz, Klagenfurt and Linz have also become venues for protests. The students occupying Vienna University's largest lecture hall for the past days said Wednesday that they were waiting for a meeting with Science Minister Johannes Hahn. "Out schedule is flexible, because we aren't going away," the letter said. Hahn said he would meet student union leaders Thursday. After tuition fees were scrapped last year, the number of Austrian and German students enrolling this semester jumped. Except for a few fields like medicine, there are no entrance examinations at universities.
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