A controversial case at the Austrian Private College of Teacher Education Burgenland has caused significant uproar: a student was given a lower grade for not using gender-neutral language in her coursework.
According to the university, its actions were based on guidelines issued by the Office for Gender and Diversity Competence, which had stated that gender-inclusive language was a basic criterion in evaluating student assignments.
The Ombudsman’s Office, which took up the case, confirmed that the student’s grade was affected solely by her failure to adhere to gender-inclusive linguistic norms. It also stated that such grading criteria, effectively treating non-compliance with gendered language as a “comprehensive knockout criterion,” lacked any legal foundation.
In light of the Ombudsman’s intervention, the Austrian Ministry of Science acknowledged it no longer supports the strict enforcement of the gender language guidelines that had been in place. These included the threat of automatic negative grades for students beginning in their fifth semester if they did not consistently apply gender-sensitive language.
