While others simply retire, the well-known and popular Civil Law professor wanted to create a scholarship fund. Today, ten years later, the unique progam has become a great success story. JKU Rector Meinhard Lukas remarked: "The grant is a visionary model: the vision of how one can simultaneously be an open university without access restrictions and at the same time support excellence, particularly gifted and interested students."

Professor Silvia Dullinger and Dean Michael Mayrhofer also underscored how clearly the program is structured in terms of concrete tasks and challenges and how students who are given these opportunities have a clear advantage, both in their studies and when embarking on their professional careers.

During opening remarks, Nikolaus Forgó, Professor of Technology and Intellectual Property Law at the University of Vienna, spoke about "…rights that are already plausible through reason". Using a series of examples, Forgó illustrated areas in which social change and new legal challenges arise as a result of technological developments. "The legal system is not prepared for the complexity that awaits us", he challenged. This is why it is vital for these young people currently studying law to focus on these challenges in order to find new, suitable approaches."

Before the seven new graduates of the Peter-Rummel-Studienfond were honored, three former program participants spoke about their experiences in the Peter Rummel program and how they began their respective professional careers. Sandra Winzer and Maximilian Wolkenstein received this year's Peter Rummel scholarship in recognition of outstanding academic achievements and were personally honored by the program’s namesake.