How did Maria Theresa limit the influence of the Jesuits in education?

Maria Theresa limited the influence of the Jesuits in education by removing universities from their control, despite her personal devotion to the order.1

Her physician, Gerhard van Swieten, implemented these drastic changes at the university level, which included:

• Introducing new textbooks.1
• Linking the medical school of the University of Vienna with the public health service.1
• Establishing the sovereign's right to veto the election of deans by the faculties.1

These reforms were part of Maria Theresa's broader effort to modernize the state by subordinating the church to the authority of the government and ensuring that higher education served the purpose of training knowledgeable civil servants and judges. While she was the last of the Catholic monarchs to close the order's establishments, these actions reflected her commitment to state-controlled intellectual life and the development of a more effective administrative system.1