Study in Austria from Africa in 2027/28

Why study in Austria?

Austria is one of the few EU countries where a third-country student pays a flat public-university fee rather than an international one. That fee is €726.72 per semester, the same for a bachelor’s, a master’s and medicine, plus the student union charge of €26.20 per semester. Uganda and Zambia sit on Austria’s least-developed-country exemption list and pay only the union charge; Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Egypt, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Morocco pay the full amount. Degrees from the 77 recognised institutions carry across the EU, and every graduate — bachelor’s, master’s or PhD — gets 12 months to look for work afterwards.

Two catches decide most cases. The first is language: at public universities almost all bachelor’s teaching is in German, and the English-taught choice sits mainly at master’s level or in the private and applied-sciences sector. The second is entry. A WASSCE, KCSE, NSC or Baccalauréat is assessed certificate by certificate against Austria’s Matura standard, and in most cases you need either one completed year of university at home or supplementary exams (Ergänzungsprüfungen) before you can start. Austria has no central admissions portal, so you apply to each university separately, and third-country deadlines fall months ahead of the EU ones.

How much does it cost to study in Austria?

Public universities charge one statutory fee, not a market price. A bachelor’s costs €726.72 per semester and a master’s €726.72 per semester; medicine is the same €726.72 per semester, though the seat is the hard part, because the MedAT quota reserves the overwhelming majority of places for EU citizens and leaves a small national share for everyone else. Every student also pays the ÖH student union fee of €26.20 per semester, including Ugandan and Zambian students who are exempt from tuition itself. Private universities and universities of applied sciences set their own prices: €18,000–24,068 per year for a bachelor’s and €14,000–22,000 per year for a master’s.

Living costs are the real budget. The national estimate is €1,250–1,500 per month. Vienna runs to €1,200–1,600 per month with a room at €450–900 per month; Graz is cheaper at €1,000–1,300 per month, and Krems, a small town built around its applied-sciences campus, cheapest at €850–1,000 per month. Statutory student health insurance costs €78.84 per month, or €946.08 per year.

Plan the first year as two semesters of tuition, twelve months at €1,250–1,500 per month and €946.08 per year of cover, before flights and permit fees. The permit is granted on proof of funds of €722.58–1,308.39 per month, not on what you actually spend. The city-by-city breakdown is on our Austria cost of study page.

Universities in Austria

Austria has 77 recognised higher education institutions in three groups. Public universities are research-led, charge the statutory fee and run most doctoral study. Fachhochschulen — universities of applied sciences — are vocational, select by their own procedure and set their own tuition. Private universities are accredited by the state but priced like private institutions anywhere.

A handful are worth knowing first. The University of Vienna is the broadest, covering law, economics, computer science, life sciences and psychology, and it has the widest English-taught master’s list in the country. TU Wien teaches mechanical, electrical, civil and chemical engineering, informatics and architecture, with English standard at master’s level. TU Graz is the other engineering school, strong in computer science, chemistry and biotechnology. WU Vienna is the business and economics specialist. Johannes Kepler University Linz pairs business and law with computer science and artificial intelligence. For teaching entirely in English there is IMC Krems (business, health sciences, biotechnology) and MODUL University Vienna (tourism, hospitality, international management), both at private-sector fees.

English requirements are set per programme, but the usual floor is IELTS 6 for a bachelor’s and 6.5 for a master’s. Some programmes accept an English-medium school certificate instead of a test — see studying in Austria without IELTS. Profiles of each institution are on our Austrian universities page.

Student visa & proof of funds

Austria does not issue a student visa as such. You apply for a residence permit — the Aufenthaltsbewilligung – Student — and once it is approved a Visa D lets you travel and collect the permit card. The permit costs €218 and the Visa D a further €195. Expect 13–26 weeks, and apply at least six months before the intake.

You file at the Austrian embassy covering where you live, and it forwards the case to the authority inside Austria — MA 35 in Vienna, the district authority elsewhere. Nigerians apply in Abuja, Ghanaians in Accra, Kenyans and Zambians in Nairobi, Egyptians through the VFS centre in Cairo, South Africans and Zimbabweans in Pretoria, Ugandans in Addis Ababa and Moroccans in Rabat. You wait for the decision outside Austria.

Most files turn on money: you must prove €722.58–1,308.39 per month, tiered by age, for a full year ahead, held in your own account or covered by a formal sponsorship declaration backed by six months of the sponsor’s statements. You also need insurance of at least EUR 30,000 on entry, a police clearance certificate and your admission letter — apostilled for South Africa and Morocco, fully legalised for the other seven countries. Biometrics are taken; there is no TB test or medical. More in Austria student visa requirements and our proof of funds guide.

Working & staying after study

You may work up to 20 hours a week during your studies, but the paperwork is stricter than in most of Europe: your employer must obtain a Beschäftigungsbewilligung from the AMS for any paid job, including a minor one. Below the cap no full labour-market test applies. No holiday exception is published — the limit is flat across the year. Austria has no statutory minimum wage; the sector benchmarks put full-time pay at €1,983–2,217 per month.

After graduating you get 12 months to find work — the same after a bachelor’s, a master’s and a PhD — as an extension of the student permit, costing €218. With a matching job offer you then move to the Rot-Weiß-Rot – Karte für StudienabsolventInnen. Be honest with yourself about German: research, IT and some corporate roles run in English, but most Austrian employers and every public-sector job expect German at a working level.

Scholarships for African students

Austria has no large national scholarship for third-country undergraduates. The two routes that matter are OeAD, the national agency’s own portfolio of schemes, and Erasmus Mundus joint master’s degrees, which are fully funded and open to applicants from all nine of our countries.

OeAD eligibility is not uniform. Students from Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe can apply across the schemes; for Ghana, South Africa and Morocco access is restricted to particular programmes, so read the individual call before you build a plan around it.

The bigger saving is structural rather than competitive. Public tuition is already €726.72 per semester, and Ugandan and Zambian nationals are exempt from it entirely under the least-developed-country rule, paying only €26.20 per semester. Private universities and Fachhochschulen sometimes offer partial fee reductions, but no Austrian institution funds living costs at the level the residence permit requires you to prove. See Austria scholarships and the Erasmus Mundus guide.

Who Austria suits — and who it doesn’t

Austria suits a master’s applicant with a completed three- or four-year degree in the same discipline, English at IELTS 6.5, and roughly €1,250–1,500 per month available for the length of the course. Engineering, computer science, business, environmental science and law all have English-taught master’s routes, and the fee stays at €726.72 per semester whatever you study.

It suits school leavers far less. A WASSCE, KCSE or NSC alone rarely opens a public bachelor’s, the teaching is in German, and the language preparation adds a year and its own costs before the degree begins. Austria is also a poor fit if you need to earn most of your living while studying — the twenty-hour cap plus an employer permit for every job makes that unreliable — or if you are aiming at medicine, where the non-EU quota is a small fraction of an already contested intake.