10-year anniversary

Experts give MedUni a good report card

There are currently 1700 students studying at the MedUni campus.

(Bild: Wenzel Markus/Markus Wenzel)

The Faculty of Medicine in Linz has been in existence for 10 years and has now been put under the microscope. And an international commission found little to criticize, as the report now presented shows. Now they want to turn their attention to the future, and finances are the sticking point.

On its tenth birthday, the Faculty of Medicine at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz underwent a voluntary evaluation, which confirmed that it is on the right track, but also sees a need for more funding for the next funding period. A further ten professorships and three clinical research institutes need to be established, as well as the development of the academic mid-level faculty, as the Vice-Rector for Medicine, Elgin Drda, explained.

Critics as examiners
The international evaluation committee was made up of deans of medical faculties in German-speaking countries and was chaired by Guido Adler, the former head of Heidelberg University Hospital. He was one of the critics at the beginning of the project, he said, but now he gave the work done a good report card. The faculty currently has 22 full professorships and 1773 students, with 320 study places on offer each year.

It's all about the money
The funds received from the federal government cannot keep up with this, according to the tenor of a press conference on Thursday. According to Drda, the faculty will receive around 57 million euros in the current funding period (2022 to 2024), while Graz and Innsbruck with a comparable number of students will receive 255 and 230 million euros respectively.

The state has paid. We have thus made our contribution, and now we expect the same from the federal government.

LH-Vize und Gesundheitsreferentin Christine Haberlander (ÖVP)

For the next three years (2025-2027), however, the faculty in Linz already has EUR 199.6 million at its disposal. For the subsequent period, there must be a further funding path to match the others. "We want what we are entitled to," she said with regard to the negotiations for the funding period from 2028, which must be negotiated in 2026 - and presumably also to a new federal government.