The End of Academia™
Technocratic managerialism is on its last legs, let's give it a hand so that it collapses, too
This is a follow-up to yesterday’s posting by Bernd Stracke in which we discussed, at quite some length, the machinations of ‘the Left™’. Exemplified by shenanigans in Innsbruck, Austria, I thought it would serve as a good introduction to today’s post about—mismanagement and lunacy at the heart of our ‘Expert-ocracy™’.
Two brief words: I’m don’t consider myself as on ‘the Right™’, just because I openly criticise their (mostly fake) ‘opponents’ on ‘the Left™’. The oligarchs control both—all—sides, and the latter just happens to be a tad more loony than the former. In my view, ‘the Left™’ is also more (way) destructive, hence my somewhat larger adversity to them.
I don’t mean to introduce more of Austrian politicking to you, because it’s such a loony circus (but not in a good way); I’m doing this to showcase that whatever in this mould occurs in your environs also occurs elsewhere at the same time, as if guided by an invisible hand.
Tomorrow I’ll do one more posting on ‘Covid™’ in Austria, and then we’ll do other fields once more. For now: translation and emphases of non-English statements mine, as are the bottom lines.
(Student) Life in Innsbruck
Tyrol’s state capital, Innsbruck, is a gem: an old city at the intersection of ancient transportation arteries—the name literally means ‘bridge across the river Inn’ (which runs roughly east-west in the Tyrol)—and the overland trans-Alpine mountain pass over the Brenner (which is way lower than, say, the Swiss passes)—has been an important communications hub for centuries.
A princely residence well before Habsburg rule (from the late middle ages through the early 20th centuries), the city has a rich heritage, including a university. Innsbruck’s location, tucked in-between the mountain peaks to the north and south of the Inn, however, means that space is very limited. Those who ever visited know, esp. if you used an aircraft to go there (though starting and landing in Innsbruck are spectacular).
As always and everywhere, limited space means very expensive property prices. Innsbruck’s cost-of-living expenses are legendary, which explains, to a certain degree, the shenanigans described by Bernd Stracke.
A second aspect of today’s posting is that Innsbruck’s university has long been of great interest to esp. German students for two reasons: first, unlike Germany, Austrian universities do not require a certain grade average to enrol in medical school (in Germany, one must have Abitur grades above what is called the Numerus Clausus for the most popular fields, incl. Law, Medicine, and a few others).
Austria doesn’t have these restrictions, which means, esp. since Vienna acceded to the EU—and signed on to the bloc’s so-called ‘four freedoms’ (mobility of goods, services, labour, and capital)—tens of thousands of German students of certain means have studied medicine in Austria. There are also, if memory serves, German-language private medical schools in at least Budapest, Hungary, and Bucharest, Romania. The reason why these exist are obvious: pay-for-play (study)—in German.
This situation has since become a problem: I recall that my graduate (M.Phil.) degree in History, of all subjects, costs the Austrian taxpayer around 100-120K euros, which is quite ‘cheap’ as far as higher ed. goes (there were only very limited tuition fees of less than 400 euros per term imposted a quarter-century ago); most costs were borne by ‘the government’. I don’t know the ‘true’ costs of studying medicine, but it’s certainly much, much higher than, say, history.
That situation is still virtually the same, if only because EU ‘rules’ mandate that EU citizens cannot be treated differently than ‘locals’. This has two main consequences: most doctors fresh out of medical school are supposed to do a three-year residency (called Turnus in Austria) to complete their training by working in public hospitals. That, however, applies only to those new MDs who continue to live in Austria; now, imagine, for a moment, the situation of a German who didn’t make the Numerus Clausus cut back home, whose parents—this is the second aspect—typically come from Germany’s wealthy southern states.
Upon graduation, the newly minted MD is expected to return to Germany and pick up work there, thus depriving the Austrian state of trained specialists (and tax revenues). In addition, if enough money from home is forthcoming, rental prices are not as important for student welfare as opposed to, say, locals. Needless to say, medical coverage in so-called ‘remote’—we call ‘infrastructurally deficient’ in German—areas is declining rapidly because most parents who live there tell their children to ‘go and study something’. Farmsteads are available increasingly cheap, if only for all the wrong reasons (but I digress).
Yes, not all foreign students who come studying are like that, but in places with high costs of living, such as Innsbruck, this is a significant contributing factor.
With the stage thus set, behold the awesome sight of mismanagement.
New Student Canteens Opened in Early 2024…
As proudly reported by the University of Innsbruck’s PR team, one of the four canteens had recently undergone significant renovations and reopened in January 2024. As is customary on such joyous occasions, everyone who draws lavish salaries for, well, ‘administering’ the university, appears for photo ops (no worries, I’ll spare you that sight), finger food, and a glass of sparkling wine.
After being closed for around six months in 2023 for renovation and remodelling work, the canteen at the Engineering Campus has now officially reopened.
After a short speech by the Vice-Rector for Finance and Infrastructure, Christian Mathes, and the Head of Catering at Österreichische Mensen Betriebsgesellschaft m.b.H., Christine Richter, a toast was raised to good cooperation in the future and a culinary insight into the canteen offer was provided. Rector Veronika Sexl was also delighted about the new start with Österreichische Mensen Betriebsges.m.b.H. at the Technikerstraße site.
Note the caterer, the Österreichische Mensen Betriebsgesellschaft, which is, technically, a LLC and a subsidiary of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Education. Please keep that bit of information in mind, because it’ll become relevant in a moment.
…Only to Declare Bankruptcy in June 2024
You read this correctly: the canteens at the University of Innsbruck have gone out of business less than six months later. For particulars, we now turn to Austrian state broadcaster ORF whose Tyrolean whose state affiliate did some ‘reporting’ a few days ago:
All four canteen locations at the University of Innsbruck are currently facing closure. This has caused a lot of criticism from the university and the ÖH [the student union], partly due to the short notice. The reason for the closure is the economic situation, as announced by the operating company. However, a solution is already in sight in some cases [more on this in a moment].
For some students and staff at the University of Innsbruck, the announcement came as a great surprise: Café UBI-Chat on the Innrain campus closed its doors last Friday, 28 June. A small notice on the locked door contained brief information from the operating company. Österreichische Mensen Betriebsgesellschaft m.b.H. had decided to discontinue its locations at the University of Innsbruck for economic reasons.
What has happened? Well, long story short, students can’t, or won’t, be able to afford the prices set:
After the canteen in the Centre for Chemistry and Biomedicine (CCB) closed at the end of May, it is now the turn of the UBI-Chat and the canteen on the Technik. Finally, the canteen in the SOWI [social sciences campus] will follow at the end of July. Only the location at the University of Teacher Education Tyrol (PHT) will continue to operate.
Economic downturn the decisive factor
‘The change in customer behaviour and the significant rise in costs in recent years mean that the affected locations can no longer be operated to cover costs’, Andreas Kabela told ORF Tirol when asked. The managing director of the operating company (ÖMBG) said that all locations were achieving sustained negative results.
According to Kabela, many of the canteen staff are employed on a seasonal basis. Ten people had to be made redundant. A solution is being worked on individually with those affected. The procedure is being coordinated with the AMS [that would be the state-run labour agency] and the ÖMBG works council [orig. Betriebsrat, which tells us that the ten people mentioned here are unionised]. The canteen company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Ministry of Science.
And there we have—Austria in a nutshell: due to gross mismanagement during the WHO-declared, so-called ‘Pandemic™’, inflation went through the roof. As an aside, a parliamentary enquiry into just how much money was spent wasted put that number at 175 billion (!!!) euros, but that was in 2021. Sadly, I assume the price tag to be significantly higher, but I digress.
Re-read the above paragraph, if needs be: there’s mainly ‘seasonal staff’ working at the canteen (i.e., a gov’t-owned entity employs precarious labour, which means no or drastically reduced benefits and social insurance contributions); the ten regularly employed people cannot be let go easily because they’re unionised and have the support of the works council. This means, in practice, that the gov’t-run Labour Service (AMS, or Arbeitsmarkt Austria) must ‘do something™’, too. Needless to say, the bureaucrats and staffers at the canteen’s head offices in Vienna’s more posh 4th District won’t face any consequences for their gross mismanagement.
Of course, the local student union is…‘unhappy’, to say the least:
‘The canteen didn’t let us in on their plans’, said Sophia Neßler, Chair of the ÖH Innsbruck, annoyed. ‘We found out from the university, which I see as problematic.’ After all, the university representation has a contract with the ÖMBG with the ‘Mensabon’, i.e., a discount for students.
‘We also find it worrying that they have taken this step and are leaving students behind in Innsbruck’, says Neßler. The cost of living is extremely high in the state capital. That’s why offers such as the canteen, which stands for affordable food, are needed. They are now facing a difficult and uncertain time. However, the ÖH is endeavouring to find solutions and is in close contact with the university.
The typically far-left™ student union is ‘annoyed’ because no-one told them beforehand, can you imagine? If this reminds you of ‘pro-Palestine supporters’ at Columbia University complaining about not being delivered food, well, that’s your association (and mine, too).
Just imagine, for a moment, bringing a sandwich or a home-made salad to campus.
And then consider the fact that the canteens, due to their favourable locations and subsidised prices, still going out of business despite the more or less captive customer base. It takes a lot of incompetence to achieve that kind of result, don’t you think?
Bottom Lines
If these ‘students’ are the future, God help us.
The university was informed at very short notice, said spokesperson Uwe Steger. ‘In general, we’re very affected by this, and now we have to see how we can solve this and find new partners.’ In view of the general shortage of staff, however, it will be difficult to find a replacement.
In response to this criticism, canteen manager Kabela said that the closure of the locations had been agreed with the university…
The tender for a new operator for the canteen at the technical centre is still in progress. And a successor is currently being sought for the CCB. ‘We are working flat out on solutions for these two locations’, Kabela assured.
Nothing fundamentally changed, hence any new operator/contractor faces exactly the same problems discussed above. The only solution would be to cut costs, either in terms of personnel or food quality.
The result will, in all likelihood, be the same, with ‘more’ gov’t-paid subsidies perhaps being the difference. If I had to guess, a ‘well-connected’ investor will ‘come to the rescue’ and obtain a favourable contract to provide these services’. Meanwhile, prices will go up and nothing will change.
I’m terribly sorry for those most affected, and there’s little anyone can do for the time being. Academia is so bloated and, in part, has become utterly useless for society, that it’s getting increasingly hard to feel empathy or sympathy for those who’ll end up holding the short straw(s).
If these managers and technocrats are ‘running’ our countries, may God have mercy.
The main problem, as I see it, is that Western Civ, or what’s left of it anyways, has moved beyond the threshold of consequences. There are virtually no more hardships, social, economic, of otherwise (shame), associated with failure. All people do these days is cry out for gov’t help.
I know, this all sounds hypocritical for a state-employed professor to say; yet, I maintain that if we continue down that particular path towards serfdom, we’ll end up way, way less happy, prosperous, and secure.
It’s also why I’m writing these pages and making them available for free.
Agree. Totally foreseeable and inevitable
Publicly owned systems are the last exploitation frontier. Public systems are made to fail by budgetary manipulations. Solution? Public private partnerships, of course! This really means privatization of the publicly owned sphere. Inefficiencies of the public sector are replaced with privately owned crappy services at higher costs. That is so much better! From there on public treasury always pays for the necessary increases in costs without any questions or criticism. After all, business must make a profit! ;-)
They are scheming to put a toll booth on air, water, your street, etc. Perhaps one day, they will charge us for our farts. Noxious fumes will be detected by an IOT (internet of things) sensor. You know, global warming and all. For that they will just create another public private partnership! Once you switch over there is no going back!
They are constantly scaring us with “danger of fascism”, but the reality is that the totalitarian nightmare they are building is infinitely worse than anything classical fascism could have done. Contrary to the common belief, the profit motive is not the primary mover in all of this. The overarching goal is the global oligarchical merger and its neo-feudal vision with drastically reduced human populations. They are willing to do ANYTHING to achieve their dream. Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin,…, are mere clowns in comparison to the Criminals driving this change. There are no individual dictators in this system, none would be tolerated. Instead, totalitarian controls are embedded in the operating system.