Students protest university fees...
Tens of thousands of Austrian students protested government plans to introduce tuition fees, blocking traffic in the capital for hours last Wednesday and marching throughout cities and towns across the Alpine nation.
The head of the Austrian Student Union, which organized the demonstrations, criticized the proposal, arguing that experience abroad has shown that charging for studies neither shortens the time it takes to earn a degree nor increases the number of professors - two of the key problems that plague Austrian universities.
The rector of Vienna University, Georg Winckler, joined the students in their protest, criticizing the levying of tuition fees as purely financially motivated. Other university professors also took part in the demonstrations.
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