Am I the only member who doesn't live in Vienna?

Hi katebr1963!

I hope other members will help you soon

Regards
Armand

Removed incorrect info.

Thanks for that very helpful, Kate x

Hi Kate

You might want to be a bit more careful about listening to what "Jones" has to say...

1) the Austrian university system is in the top 20 worldwide.

2) the "Mag." degree, which Jones says is not recognized outside of Austria, is simply the abbreviated form of Magister, or in English, Master. Its a normal Masters degree, recognized everywhere.

3) Why on earth would parents get subsidies for where their 22 year old children go to school?? The reason children from Austria go to University in Austria is because its their country and the fees are very reasonable here (330 or so euro per semester)

Duh.

I hope that helps. In any case, its more factual information than what has been posted until now.

1) I'm quoting the Kleine Zeitung's own list! Austria was number ninety something, and the UK was in the top 10 or 20, I can't quite remember the details, and I don't have to, as the salient piece of information was the low ranking of Austria, which was what the Kleine Zeitung article was bemoaning.

And other lists provide similar information, with the best Austrian university being in the 80s.

http://www.4icu.org/top200/http://www.webometrics.info/top12000.asp?offset=50http://www.topuniversities.com/universi … C0%2C0%2C2 (Rank 143 on this one!)

We are only talking about comparing the best with the best, which I admit is unfair, so of course if you averaged it out, there is not a big difference between the UK and Austrian universities.

2) I have had it explained to me several times that Mag is part of the 'old' German/Austrian educational system. Not the same as an MSc or MA.  Although it wouldn't be the first time I have been given incorrect information by people dead certain of their facts...! americanschmaeh is right, my mistake on this one. It's just a name, the system is the same. Point 3, however, goes some way to explaining why there are so may people with a Mag. in Austria, and why in the UK not so many people have it. (Basically, the price difference between Austria and the UK, as americanschmaeh said above, 330eur).

3) See Familienbeihilfe (the age used to be 26, but this year it was reduced to age 24), where the parents are indeed paid for their children to study, provided certain conditions are met, such as income, the child living with the parents etc. I'm not making things up.... Also Stipendium is another form of payment, but apart from it's name I know nothing more about it.

I am in no way an expert on this topic, and while not totally correct, I wasn't spouting complete nonsense.

At any rate, katebr1963 will have to do some research. There are some facts in this topic somewhere!

Thanks for your advice. My eldest son is studying for a Masters in the U.K. but my daughter is hoping to study here. She is having a year out next year to travel so we have time to sort ourselves out.

Kate

Hi Kate,

my five cents:

1) yes, Austria (like Germany and many other european countries)
used to have a system slightly different from the Anglican
bachelor/master idea. However, what Austrians called Magister
(or Dimplom Ingenieur in the engineering sciences) has always
been regarded pretty much equivalent to the US/UK masters degree.
And, more importantly, in recent years the Austrian Universities
have started to introduce Bachelor/Master degrees in favour
of Magister, and by now this transition is basically complete.
If one of your kids starts doing a degree at any Austrian
university these days, he/she will (hopefully) finish with a
Bachelor (3 years) or Master (5 years) and these degrees will
be accepted for what they are in all European countries (including
the UK) and also in the US. That was, in fact, the whole idea behind
this transition: to standardize the higher eduction systems throughout
Europe. Also, yours truly finished a Magister/DiplIng degree
at an Austrian university about 10 years ago, and there was no
problem whatsoever, when I then started a PhD program at the
University of London (UK)

2) In addition to the transition from Magister to Master
another change took place in the Austrian higher eduction system
during the last 10, or so, years: they introduced another type opf
school, the so-called "Fachhochschule". This you can consider
somewhat similar to what, in the US, they call "teaching colleges".
You can also do a Bachelor or a Master there (3-5 years), but the
education is typically considered being closer to real-life
applications, if you will ... the way it looks now, this
type of school is your choice if you are less "theoretically"
inclined and more into "doing things" ... you probably won't
do it if you want to keep having the option of becoming,
for example, a university teacher yourself.

3) about quality of eduction ... to me it seems to be very much
a matter of taste, its very difficult to compare different
systems. I finished a MSc (Magister) at an Austrian university,
then a PhD in the UK, and then worked for some years at a University
in the US ... so I probably have a relatively good idea of the
relative merits/drawbacks of these places and systems, but
I wouldn't dare to put forward a judgement. One thing is
probably true: In Austria (and some other European countries) the
higher eduction landscape is "flatter", that is, quality wise there
are not so big differences between different schools (when it comes
to departments that's probably a different story though)
In the UK, and even more so, in the US, the landscape is
quite mountainous in comparison ... you'd find very good schools,
and very bad ones ... this being said, I am pretty sure that most
schools in Austria are good enough to give you a decent education,
and if, as a student, your are INTERESTED in learning something
you will be given plenty of opportunity for doing so, and
once you have a degree from a university here you should be fine
going whereever ...

anyway ... if you let me know what your daughters interests are
I might be able to point out some places here in A.

good luck!

Michael

Hi Kate,

You certainly arent the only member in Carinthia.  I am here as well - in Klagenfurt.  How long have you been in Carinthia and where exactly in Carinthia are you, if I may ask?  Are you still living here?  Have you been successful with meeting other expats? 

I'm originally from Singapore and I have a friend who's from Malaysia and she's been living here for 5 years.  Her kids are in their early to mid teens and they are in the Austrian schools.  However, I do recall her saying that she'd like them to enrol in Graz or Vienna for their university years...

Su