Austria is a federal state, consisting of nine provinces: Burgenland, Carinthia, Lower Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Tirol, Upper Austria, Vienna and Vorarlberg.

The Nationalrat and the Bundesrat, the two houses of the Austrian Parliament are the main legislative bodies of the Republic. The Nationalrat approves federal legislation and also any newly formed government. Along with the nine provinces individual parliaments and governments, the Bundesrat, in which representation is by province, reflects the federal element of the Austrian system of government. Together, the Nationalrat and the Bundesrat form what is known as the federal assembly. The head of the Austrian state is the federal president.

The Education Minister is supported and advised by a School Reform Commission which was set up in 1969. All schools enjoy the scope to implement independent decisions with regard to the syllabus where these are endorsed by a two-thirds majority in the School Community Committee on the school forum.

1997 European Union statistics give the gross domestic product per head at 22.140 Ecu. The workforce is split thus: 60.6% agriculture, 32.1% industry, 60.6% in the services sector.

Population	7,988,000
GDP per head	22,256 Ecu

The Austrian vocational education and training system offers three main types of secondary education: apprenticeship training, full-time intermediate and higher-secondary-level technical and vocational training and academic secondary education. Students can enrol in vocational training programmes from the age of 14 on. It is at this stage that they have to determine whether they want academic or vocational education. If they choose vocational education, this is the point at which they also have to decide on their future occupation.

In apprenticeship training and the dual-system vocational education and training take place in training companies and in schools (80 and 20 per cent respectively of total training time). In 1994 students were being prepared for 238 different trades. Intermediate-secondary technical and vocational schools (Berufsbildende mittlere Schulen or BMS) offer one to three year programmes qualifying students for specific occupations.

Training lasting three years or more leads to a licensed trade. Higher level technical or vocational schools (Berufsbildende höhere Schulen or BHS) deliver upper secondary education completed with the Matriculation Examination. A special feature of the Austrian vocational education system, BHS, provides advanced general and vocational education (double qualification), which both qualifies students for higher positions and gives them access to universities. The BHS have intensive and institutionalised relations with business and industry.

Government distance training provision

Proprietary distance training provision

Distance teaching university

Conventional university

The best way to study the Austrian distance training industry market is to survey the official listing of its members and them to survey institutions that are not members.

The members which fall within the definition of distance education adopted in this report are:

Berufsförderungsinstitut Wien (BFI) is the distance education college of the Austrian Council of Trade Unions. It offers a range of commercial and management courses to an enrolment of 2,500 (public).

BBRZ is a semi-permanent college for the provision of distance education to the handicapped with a range of courses in technical, electronics and mathematics courses for an enrolment of 250 (public).

SPIDI was a distance education college of the Austrian Employers Federation which taught modern languages and related subjects at a distance to an enrolment of 250 until September 1997 when the distance courses were closed. Existing students are being taught out (private).

The Defence Ministry has a distance education college with a range of courses for military personnel and related staff with an enrolment of 6,658 in 1997 (public)

The Ferntechnikum Bregenz is a technical college in Bregenz that had a distance education programme which closed in 1996 (private).

IBZ is the Austrian branch of a Swiss distance education provider.

The Institut Fernkurs für theologische Bildung is a church-owned distance theology institute

Maturaschule Dr Roland is a private distance education college with adult programmes for high school graduation, accounting, computing and languages. In 1997 it incorporated the SPIDI range of courses.

VWV is a distance education college supported by the city of Vienna

The Humboldt College is the largest of the distance education colleges that are not members of the association.

There are current negotiations between the Osterreichische Fernschulverband and the Austrian Ministry of Eudcation which focus on quality control, advertising procedures and trans-border activities.

OSZF. The major initiative is the setting up of a state-sponsored distance training college in Vienna, called OZSF, the Österreichischer Zentrum für Selbststudium und Fernunterricht (the Austrian Centre for Selfstudy and Distance Training).

At present this institution has 3.5 full-time staff and employs 15 part-time. It is at present developing distance learning materials for a range of courses for the first intake of students in September 1997.

This new college will have links with the VWV, the Verband Wiener Volksbildung, the distance training section of the Vienna Popular Education Association, which is also supported by the city of Vienna.

Der Osterreichische Fernschulverband (Austrian Distance Training Association) founded in 1970 provides a listing of its members and a total enrolment of 8,000 per year for those programmes which fall within the definition of distance education and training adopted in this study. A further 15,000 enrolments per year are registered with colleges outside their association.

The division into public and proprietary providers adopted in this study does not well fit the Austrian situation as a number of colleges straddle the division between the two categories. Thus, the figures given for each of the two categories are somewhat arbitrary.

The Fernunterricht im Österreichischen Bundesheer (Austrian Federal Military Distance Education Institute ) informed the Voctade enquiry that its distance education provision is not to be considered as an alternative to face-to-face training but as a complement to it. Its courses are all on military or paramilitary subjects, and are available also to the members of the Red Cross and Fire Brigades.

It gave the following statistics:

Year	No of courses	No of enrolments
1990	2	3637
1991	8	8369
1992	9	5871
1993	8	4512
1994	11	5773
1995	12	3873
1996	12	6658

• size of the country
• other political educational priorities (Fachhochschulen)
• foundation of an open university in a neighbouring country with the same language
• focus on provision of distance education from conventional universities
• enrolment of many Austrian citizens in courses from international distance education providers, especially the Fernuniversität in Germany and the Open University in the United Kingdom.

These centres are focused on student support, information, preparation, tutoring and counselling, use of electronic media.

The study centre in Vienna is a designated European Study Centre (ESC) with a special focus on intercultural and social aspects of supporting students studying abroad. These study centres are attempting to involve Austrian conventional universities, as well as the international providers.

FernUniversität statistics for 1995-1996 show 1.767 citizens of Austria enrolled and when statistics for the British Open University and other providers are added, the three Austrian study centres would be involved with 2,500 students. However, in the rules established above for the Voctade project, these students are counted in the country of origin of the course.

For students enrolled at the FernUniversität there is the possibility of oral examinations being held by two-way video, two-way audio codec video conferencing links between Hagen and Austria.

At the time of this research there were no distance education programmes which were developed by conventional Austrian universities in which enrolments are being accepted for degree credit. There are a number of plans and analyses especially from the University of Linz, but the only distance education courses with enrolments for degrees are from the Fernuniversität in Hagen and the Open University of the United Kingdom.

Unlike the Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon countries, Austria has no tradition to speak of in the distance-learning sector, either at the university or at the pre-university level.

For some years now we have witnessed repeated attempts in the Austrian educational scene to establish distance learning as a matter of public interest. More funds are to be made available by the state for the development of new types of learning and teaching.

Austria educational system and distance learning

On principle, the education and instruction of children and young people requires their attendance at school. There is no self-study material available for children of compulsory school age or for young people at academic secondary schools or higher-level secondary technical and vocational colleges.

The transition from one level of the educational system to the next is clearly regulated. On the one hand, the entrance requirements are formalised and generalised, on the other hand, school-leaving certificates guarantee state-approved qualifications.

The school reform of the seventies, with its expansion policy for higher-level schools, has been unsatisfactory. It is true that the percentage of girls at higher-level schools and universities has steeply risen and that a somewhat higher percentage of children from the less educated strata go in for university studies, with a few more coming remote areas. But those who benefit the most are the already educated: the majority of their children go to university. The possibilities of transfer within the school system are restricted by its structure.

Distance learning in Austria

• Factual, complete and comprehensible written information on the content, length, cost and contract terms of the course provided:
• Neither study nor education counsellors (or whatever they may call themselves) are to visit interested persons in their homes or at work, unless they are personally and expressly requested to do so;
• Use of pedagogically appropriate learning material, including a suitable number of exercises, which are to be returned by the participant to the distance-learning institute for individual correction and comment;
• Only qualified staff members are to be employed as authors, teachers and for correcting tasks;
• Course fees have to be commensurate with the teaching services rendered;
• The termination of contracts must be possible at least at the end of each 6-month semester; the term of notice must not exceed 6 weeks.

Currently, the Association has nine member institutes that offer approximately one hundred different distance-learning courses. Another market-learning distance-learning institute offers a broad spectrum of vocational further training; this institute is not a member of the Austrian Association but belongs to the European Association of Distance-learning colleges.

Government distance training provision:

Military	6.658
Non-military	3.250
	9.908

Proprietary distance training provision

Members of ÖFV	1.100
Non-members	15.000
	26.000

The existing distance training provision for the members of the ÖFV is fairly static around the 6,500 per annum figure. The division of these students between public and private providers is fairly arbitrary with the BFI, BBRZ, VWV and Defence Ministry being counted as public and the remainder propriety. To the ÖFV proprietary schools is added the total for the major college not a member of this association at 14,500 students per year.

1995

1996

1997