Up to 400,000 euros

University presidents earn more than the chancellor

The government is facing its first major demonstration. And this despite the fact that some of Austria’s university rectors earn more than the chancellor.(Bild: Krone-Collage/Klemens Groh, APA/Georg Hochmuth)

Austria’s university rectors are up in arms over supposed cuts to research funding—yet they themselves earn above-average salaries by international standards, despite modestly good results. The “Krone” now reveals these lavish salaries, amounting to as much as 195 euros per student.

Top performance demands top pay. This also applies to universities and their professors. Whether this is the case in Austria is now being called into question amid the debate over the science budget.

As is well known, Austria’s university rectors have declared the end is nigh. “Devastation,” “meltdown,” “historic attack”—the threatening rhetoric ahead of the planned mass demonstration on Wednesday on Vienna’s Ringstrasse could hardly be more apocalyptic. And the politicians? They’re playing along obediently. But no matter how high the waves of the student storm may have crashed: the salaries of the university rectors are apparently even higher.

195 euros per student
According to a response to a parliamentary inquiry from the Ministry of Science to FPÖ Secretary-General Michael Schnedlitz, many of the university heads who are now predicting the collapse earn more than the Federal Chancellor—who, as is well known, makes 281,280 euros a year.

The figures in the document date from 2024 and show that at the top is the rector of the Vienna University of Economics and Business with 396,117 euros gross per year. He is followed by the heads of the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna with 361,817 euros and the Medical University of Graz with 361,448 euros. Particularly telling: The president of the Universities Conference, who is leading the alarmist campaign, herself heads the University of Art and Design Linz—an art university with just 1,595 students—but apparently commands a salary of 311,807 euros. She thus earns 195 euros per student.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/stock.adobe.com)

By comparison: At the University of Vienna, the country’s largest with 79,149 students, each student accounts for just 4.47 euros of the rector’s salary.

Ironically, it is precisely these top earners who, with Eva-Maria Holzleitner, are now launching a frontal attack on the very minister who has been fighting behind the scenes—all the way up to the chancellery—for more funding—without ever publicly uttering a single critical word about the universities. The opposition has willingly joined the chorus. Green Party caucus chair Sigrid Maurer senses a “historic attack on universities” and a “systematic dismantling of the academic community”—and seizes the opportunity to rub it in the SPÖ’s face: After all, she notes, the party holds the posts of Vice-Chancellor, Finance Minister, and Minister of Science. FPÖ budget spokesperson Arnold Schiefer also chimed in—the budget is “reformless, timid, and without a future.” And even Vienna’s powerful SPÖ mayor, Michael Ludwig, came to the defense of his party colleague: “Whoever cuts funding for universities today is cutting funding for the doctors and teachers of tomorrow,” he had posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Budget Has Actually Increased
All of this appears to be based on anecdotal observations—but valid data paints a different picture. The university budget has actually risen by 34 percent during the current performance agreement period—the highest level ever. According to the OECD report “Education at a Glance 2025,” Austria also spends 1.6 percent of its GDP on higher education—ranking second in the EU, behind only Norway. That amounts to about $26,900 per student annually, well above the OECD average. One certainly cannot speak of “starvation” in this context. 

Top salaries, poor rankings
While retirees have to scrimp and families are groaning under the weight of inflation, big money is rolling in at the top of the universities. Skepticism toward science has never ended well in politics. But this time, politicians may well view the salaries of those who are currently proclaiming the end of the world with skepticism. Especially since, despite the top salaries for university leaders, the results are anything but top-tier by international standards. Austria ranks among the leaders internationally in terms of university spending—yet last year, with the University of Vienna, it had only a single domestic university that made it into the top 100 of the “THE World University Rankings.”