9.618-060/10

Vienna, 10 March 2010 – Since the implementation of the new academic degrees in 2000/01 up to the end of the academic year 2007/08 Austrian Universities awarded a total of 16 620 Bachelor’s degrees. During the last years the impact of Bachelor’s degrees increased considerably: In the academic year 2007/08 more than a quarter (26.2%) of all final degrees of undergraduate studies were Bachelor’s degrees. In the academic year 2002/03 they just amounted to 2.6 per cent. Out of students enrolled at Austrian universities for the first time 54.3 per cent were enrolled in a Bachelor’s study in 2007/08.

According to Statistics Austria, more than 80 per cent of the alumni with a Bachelor’s degree continued their studies on Master’s degree level, women less likely than men: Among bachelor graduates of the academic year 2007/08 76.4 per cent female but 86.1 per cent of their male colleagues started a Master’s study. Alumni of engineering, mining studies and studies of natural resources are more likely to pursue studies on Master’s degree level than alumni of the humanities or the arts. 71.4 per cent of the graduates of the academic year 2007/08 who were awarded with a bachelor degree in humanities, have started a Master’s study until winter term 2008/09. Only students of Arts show a lower percentage (70.4 per cent). On the other hand, 90.5 per cent of the graduates of engineering, 97.0 per cent of the graduates of mining studies and 94.1 per cent of the graduates of studies of natural resources carry on with a Master’s study immediately after their bachelor graduation. Average values can be found for natural sciences (83.0 per cent) and social sciences (83.0 per cent).

For more detailed information please refer to the German Version.