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13. 09. 12. - 16:19
Foreign student numbers on the rise in Austria
Austria is increasingly popular with foreign students with almost 1 in 4 of those in higher education coming from abroad.
Overall 360,495 students were studying in Austria during the winter semester 2011/2012 - and 81,578 were foreign students, an increase of 6,167 on the year before.
Most foreign students come from Germany, Italy and Turkey with the main emphasis being German students who are coming to Austria to study in increasing numbers.
In total 31,159 students with German citizenship were signed in at Austrian universities and technical colleges during the winter semester 2011/2012.
The reason for German students to come to Austria is often the fact that the Universities in Germany are harder to get into.
The numerus clausus system is currently used in German countries and universities where the number of applicants greatly exceeds the number of available places for students.
Students in Germany choose their field of specialization when they begin university study, unlike students in North America, who specialize later.
Fields such as medicine, law, biology, dentistry, pharmacology, psychology and business administration are particularly popular and therefore harder to gain admittance to study.
The "numerus clausus" varies between schools and subjects but demands students have a certain overall average grade when they leave high school.
If they do not have the grade they need to get into the German university of their choice, many opt come to Austria to study here instead.
Students from Italy are the next biggest group of foreign students in Austria. Including South Tyrol some 8,091 Italian citizens studied in Austria.
They were followed by Turkey (4,475), Bosnia (2,977), Croatia (1,993), Serbia (1992), Hungary (1966), Bulgaria (1,940), Romania (1,861) and Poland (1,822).
