Vienna  - Heads of Austrian universities on Tuesday complained about increasing numbers of German students and called for compensation payments from Germany.

Austrian universities are attractive for foreign students because there are no entrance examinations, except in a few fields such as medicine. In addition, tuition fees were scrapped last year.

"Can we expect the Austrian tax payer to provide the university infrastructure for wide parts of central Europe, which are now flooding our country because we offer places for free?" University of Innsbruck head Karlheinz Toechterle told the ORF radio.

Other university rectors, the Green Party, as well as the right- wing Alliance for the Future of Austria are now asking for contributions from Germany.

The share of German students rose from 2.6 per cent in 2000 to 7.3 per cent in the past academic year, to a total of around 18,000, according to Austrian press agency APA.

At Salzburg University, three quarters of first-year psychology students are Germans, ORF reported.

However, Science Minister Johannes Hahn said he opposes the compensation scheme and argued that many Austrians are also studying abroad.

The minister told ORF that he would rather limit admissions to additional fields of study, and to reintroduce fees.(dpa)