The draft law passed in the Council of Ministers on Wednesday only provides for primary school teachers to start the new structure with a three-year bachelor’s degree and two-year master’s degree from 2025/26; for secondary school teachers it should start in 2026/27. Universities and universities of teacher education (PH) feared a loss of quality due to the tight schedule.
Teacher training for the primary level (especially elementary school) currently takes four years of bachelor’s degree plus one year of master’s degree. At the secondary level (middle school, AHS, BMHS) it is four years of Bachelor plus two years of Master, so in the future it will be one year less for this group. The training should also be more practical and the master’s degree should be easier to study part-time and “purified”. For example, there should be no duplication of educational sciences in bachelor’s and master’s degrees, emphasized Education Minister Martin Polaschek (ÖVP) in the foyer after the Council of Ministers. New options such as studying bundles of subjects such as MINT (math, computer science, natural sciences, technology) instead of a single subject are also planned in secondary school.
One of the longest teacher training courses in the world
The reform will shorten one of the world’s longest teacher training courses, said Polaschek. “We are creating a modern course of study that meets the demands and requirements of schools in the 21st century, while of course maintaining high quality.” Polaschek justified the postponement of the start date with the complexity of the project: After all, in secondary school, where training is organized in associations of universities and universities from several federal states, all institutions would have to develop the same study plans. In elementary schools, where each PH develops the curricula individually, it should be possible to start as early as 2025/26.
Innovations in plagiarism rules
According to the press release from the Ministry of Education, the draft for the higher education law package approved by the Council of Ministers on Wednesday and now being submitted to parliament also provides for innovations in the plagiarism rules: plagiarism itself should still not become statute-barred, but the possibility of receiving an academic degree because of one should remain To cancel or revoke plagiarism may become statute-barred. Polaschek justified this change to the previous draft in the document by saying that bachelor’s or master’s degrees would be awarded for all coursework, not just for the scientific thesis. However, when asked, he did not want to say how many years after completion this statute of limitations begins. The topic of the press conference was the reform of teacher training, he refused to answer.
Also new in the draft law is the possibility of dedicated study places in veterinary medicine: As with human medicine studies, five percent in veterinary medicine should also be dedicated for a limited period of time to students who commit to working in public health care for some time after graduation.
