From the winter semester

First-year students must achieve minimum credits

From October 1, the minimum study performance of 16 ECTS points will come into force for all Bachelor's and Diplom degree courses starting in the winter semester 2022/23 or later. Students who do not achieve this within the first four semesters will lose their place. You can reapply after two years, at another institution immediately.

The hurdle of 16 ECTS as a minimum study achievement for first-year students, which the ÖVP and the Greens were ultimately able to agree on, is admittedly not particularly high.

At this rate, it would take 22.5 years to complete a bachelor's degree course with the usual 180 ECTS credits, with a minimum study period of three years. Students with disabilities are exempt from the minimum study period.

According to the law, the possibility of restricting access to overcrowded Master's degree courses will become even more stringent this academic year. However, the Master's entrance tests must first be anchored in the performance agreements between universities and the Ministry of Education.

Master's admission procedure too
According to the ministry, the universities must explain specifically why they need to restrict access to a particular subject due to specific problems (such as a lack of space or staff). Any Master's admission procedures will be applied for the first time in the winter semester of 2025. Universities are currently only allowed to carry out admission procedures for English-language Master's degree courses.

Other news at Austrian universities:

• At the University of Vienna, the largest university in the country, the large reading room of the main library has been undergoing a comprehensive renovation since this week, with almost three million books moving to a newly built depot in Floridsdorf. In future, there will be twice as many study areas and workstations in the reading room as before, and the library will also be accessible via several entrances on different levels.

• From this academic year onwards, prospective teachers at university colleges of teacher education (PH) will be able to train in the subject "Digital Basic Education and Computer Science" for the first time nationwide. This was previously only possible in eastern Austria.

• Following the soft launch last year, the first PhD course at the Linz digital university IT:U will begin in the winter semester: the English-language course offered jointly with the University of Linz is called "Digital Transformation" and focuses on learning and teaching through AI.

• At the University of Salzburg, geologist Bernhard Fügenschuh, most recently Vice Rector at the University of Innsbruck, becomes the new Rector. At the University of Klagenfurt, economist Ada Pellert takes over from Oliver Vitouch, who is currently also President of the University Conference (uniko), on 1 December.

• On 26 September 2024, the bachelor's degree course in healthcare and nursing at the IMC Krems University of Applied Sciences starts with 34 students on the premises of the Landesklinikum Horn/Healthcare and Nursing School Horn.