MU helps revive the union for private universities in Austria

After some years of dormancy, student representatives of the private universities in Austria succeeded in reviving the VÖSPU association - the German name VÖSPU stands for Verein zum Aufbau und zur Förderung einer bundesweiten Studierendenvertretung der Privatuniversitäten, or roughly, association for the building and promotion of a nationwide student representation of private universities.

MU Student Representative and Bachelor student Dennis Pregesbauer is one of the reps responsible for bringing the VÖSPU back to life. He told us a little about the organization:

‘’After the kick off from the UMIT (Private Universität für Gesundheitswissenschaften, Medizinische Informatik und Technik), who organized the first and second get-together and invited every private university in Austria, we finally re-founded the union. At this point, five out of the twelve private universities in Austria are part of this new VÖSPU-union, including, of course, Modul University.

But what exactly is the goal behind the re-established VÖSPU? As an association, we set ourselves some aims we want to achieve. Our ultimate goal that we should never lose sight of is to be strong together for the “small amount” of private universities in Austria. Moreover, we want to have the same standards – concerning the representation of student reps in the different assemblies of the universities – and support for all students at their universities as much as possible in regard to our capabilities. Beside these points, we also have the possibility to join the Austrian National Union for Students – the German Name Die Österreichische HochschülerInnenschaft – for different kind of benefits.

I think many of you are also interested in knowing, what are the benefits for MU students? For instance, as one of the founding members, we have the possibility to give a lot of input in this newly founded association. Moreover, we are also trying to improve the contact between the private universities with different upcoming events like a ball for private universities in Austria and many more such events.

However, the most important benefit of being part in this union for us MU students and other students of private universities in Austria is that we are finally have an own association for private universities in Austria and could join the Austrian National Union for Students for more rights.‘’

Members of VÖSPU:

UMIT (Private Universität für Gesundheitswissenschaften, Medizinische Informatik und Technik)

Sigmund Freud Universität

Webster University

Anton-Bruckner Privatuniversität

Modul University Vienna