Senate of TU Graz

Senate Meetings

Academic year 2024/25

• 23 June 2025

 

Academic year 2025/26

• 6 October 2025
• 3 November 2025
• 1 December 2025
• 19 January 2026
• 2 March 2026
• 27 April 2026
• 18 May 2026
• 22 June 2026

 

According to § 3 (2) of the rules of procedure of the senate, persons affiliated with the TU Graz (employees and students) have the right to be present at the public part of the Senate sessions.

Please register at the Senate's Office if you would like to take part in the public part of a senate meeting.

Members of the Senate

The Senate of TU Graz is made up of 26 members from individual groups of university members.

• University professors: 13 members
• Mid-level staff: 6 members 
  This group is made up of all academic personnel who are not university professors: Extraordinary university professors, associate and assistant professors, senior scientists, assistants with and without doctorates, and university teachers.
• Students: 6 members
• Administrative personnel: 1 member

Student members are delegated by the TU Graz Student Union. All other members are elected by the respective group for a 3-year term of office. 

Chairperson and Deputies

Chairperson:

Annette MÜTZE

1^st Deputy:

Maria Cecilia POLETTI

2^nd Deputy:

Viola BROD

3^rd Deputy:

Karin STANA KLEINSCHEK

 

Associate Professors and Academic Personnel in Research and Teaching

Thomas BAUERNFEIND

Roland FISCHER

Evelyn KRALL

Maria Cecilia POLETTI

Andreas TRUMMER

Helmut WOSCHITZ

Students

Lennart BORCHERS

Viola BROD

Caroline GENSER

Niklas Peter LIEBMINGER

Lukas ROSSEGGER

Lisa STEINGRUBER

 

Autonomy – Self-determination

The Senate plays an important role in making autonomy and self-determination of the university a reality:

• Organisation of the other two managerial bodies: members of the University Council are appointed by the Senate together with the Federal Government; the University Council appoints members of the Rectorate in a joint procedure together with the Senate.
• The Senate is the legislative assembly of the university. It legislates the statute of the university, which defines important regulations, such as study regulations or measures for the advancement of women, and which are constantly being adapted to the changing legal and social frame conditions.

Quality Assurance - Strategic

The Senate ensures quality on a strategic level: The Senate authorises committees who are responsible for quality assurance when employing professors with an open end contact and awarding the venia docendi. Appointment of university management and selection of management personnel is made strategically and in accordance with the quality standards of the whole university. Central strategic documents, such as the Development Plan (in German) or Organisation Plan, are drafted by the operative bodies and submitted to the Senate. The Senate approves the documents if they meet the quality criteria required from a strategic perspective. 

• Election of members of University Council and changes to size of University Council
• Approval of advertisement for the position of Rector and the creation of a shortlist of three candidates for the election of a Rector.
• Statement on suggestions for Rector regarding Vice Rectors: Number, working hours, proposal of candidate
• Involvement in dismissing members of University Council, the Rector and Vice Rectors
• Statement before people are allocated to individual organisational units
• Establishing a Working Group for Equal Opportunities
• Nomination of a female and male main member and deputy member for the Arbitration Board

• Adoption and changing the Statute on the suggestion of the Rectorate.
• Adoption and changing of the curricula for full degree programmes and university certificate programmes.
• Approval of the draft of the development plan (complete strategy for TU Graz) created by the Rectorate as well as the draft of the organisational chart, which describes organisational units and their tasks.
• Involvement in habilitation procedures (in German: Habilitationsverfahren) and appointment procedures
• Determination of academic degrees and titles for graduates of university certificate programmes
• Appraisals at complaint procedures on study matters
• Appointment of collegiate bodies, such as habilitation committees, appointment committees and curricula committees as well as adoption of directives for their tasks.

University Act

The Senate is organised in accordance with § 25 University Act.

Rules of Procedure of the Senate

The Rules of Procedure of the Senate (in German: Geschäftsordnung des Senates) stipulate how the Senate works, how the meetings proceed and which cases the chairperson of the Senate can deal with independently.

Statute of TU Graz

The Statute of TU Graz regulates aspects such as electoral regulations for members of the Senate.

Directives

The following directives of TU Graz are decided upon by the Senate: 

• Directive for Appointment Procedure: Richtlinie für das Berufungsverfahren
• Directive for habilitation procedure: Richtlinie für das Habilitationsverfahren

• Curricula Committee of the Senate for Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree Programmes
• Curricula Committee of the Senate for Doctoral Programmes and Certificate Programmes
• Work Groups for Study Committees
• Appointment Committee according to § 25 (8) 2 University Act
• Habilitation Committee according to § 25 (8) 1 University Act 

For Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree Programmes

• Checklist for submitting curriculae: Checkliste für das Einreichen von Studienplänen
• Example curricula for TU Graz bachelor’s degree programmes: Mustercurriculum TU Graz Bachelorstudien
• Example curricula for NAWI Graz bachelor’s degree programmes: Mustercurriculum NAWI Graz Bachelorstudien
• Example curricula for TU Graz master’s degree programmes: Mustercurriculum TU Graz Masterstudien
• Example curricula for NAWI Graz master’s degree programmes: Mustercurriculum NAWI Graz Masterstudien
• Directives for English language master’s programmes for strengthening internationalisation: Richtlinien für englischsprachige Masterstudien zur Stärkung der Internationalisierung

For University Programmes, Courses and Seminars

In German:

• Richtlinie zu Universitätslehrgängen
• Mustercurriculum Universitätslehrgänge mit Masterabschluss – Richtlinie
• Mustercurriculum Universitätslehrgänge mit Abschluss akademische Expertin / akademischer Experte – Richtlinie
• Richtlinie zur Einrichtung von Universitätskursen

Conference of Senate Chairpersons at Austrian Universities (SVK)

This is attended by chairpersons of senates and their deputies from public universities in Austria. For the functional period 2019 to 2022, the Senate Chair of Graz University of Technology Gernot Kubin was elected as spokesperson; from 2016 to 2019 he was a member of the team of spokespersons.

Statutes SVK (in German)

The press releases and statements by the Conference of Senate Chairpersons at Austrian Universities can be found on the German page.