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Eurydice

EACEA National Policies Platform:Eurydice
Quality Assurance

Last update: 19 April 2025
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Overview

The following table provides an overview of external and internal quality assurance (QA) measures that are used in the different education areas in Austria and which are explained in the following chapters. Below the table, the main legal bases of QA are listed.

Fig. 1: Overview of external and internal QA measures and processes in Austria by education areas

Education area External QA Internal QA
Early Childhood Education and Care

  • Different measures and processes: continuing and further education and training for employees, coaching, quality circles, research & development, etc.
Primary and Secondary Level
All areas
  • Quality management
General education sector

VET schools and colleges

  • VET Quality Initiative (QIBB) – peer reviews
  • Competence-oriented teaching at VET schools and colleges
  • Austrian Reference Point for Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training
Dual VET
  • Assessment procedures for training companies
  • Safeguarding the quality of VET trainers
  • Safeguarding the quality of the apprenticeship-leave examination: Clearing office
  • Safeguarding the training quality at schools and colleges
  • Quality Management in Apprenticeship (QML) initiative
  • Report on the situation of youth employment and apprenticeship training submitted to the National Parliamentary Council 
  • Control by actors of the governance structure
  • In-house measures depending on the type and organisation of the company-specific quality assurance
Education area External QA Internal QA
Tertiary Level 

Adult education

  • Various QA processes depending on the provider (such as EduQua, EFQM, different ISO standard procedures, etc.)


Legal bases

Aspects of quality assurance in the different education areas are regulated in the following legal bases in Austria:


Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC)

The tasks and responsibilities in the Austrian ECEC sector rest with the provinces. The respective childcare laws of the provinces set forth a general obligation to take quality-assuring measures.

Individual aspects of childcare which contribute to care quality are also regulated in provincial laws, such as the staff-child ratio, group sizes, the extent of further training for care personnel, and the equipment and facilities of care institutions.


Primary and Secondary Level

Quality assurance and development in the school sector is mainly enshrined in the following three laws:

  • The Federal Constitutional Act (Bundes-Verfassungsgesetz, B-VG) Federal Law Gazette I no. 31/2005 of 9 June 2005 – Art. 14 (5a) explicitly obliges Austrian schools to safeguard “an as high as possible educational level while continually assuring and developing the best possible quality”.
  • The Federal School Supervision Act (Bundes-Schulaufsichtsgesetz, BSchAufsG) Federal Law Gazette I no. 28/2011 of 20 May 2011, § 18 stipulates that quality management be set up which comprises all levels of school administration and the schools and also includes school inspections. According to the Act, as one major part of this quality management procedure, a national Quality framework must be drawn up and based on academic criteria.
  • The School Education Act (Schulunterrichtsgesetz, SchUG) Federal Law Gazette I no. 29/2011 of 20 May 2011, § 56 (2) sets forth, among other issues, the responsibilities of school principals, whose tasks include the quality management at schools.

The legal requirements about quality management that are set forth in the School Quality in General Education initiative (SQA) and in the vocational sector by the VET Quality Initiative (QIBB)

The SchUG legally enshrines national educational standards and standardised competence-oriented matriculation (and diploma) examinations (Reifeprüfung/Reife- und Diplomprüfung).

‘New teacher training’ (PädagogInnenbildung NEU) is legally regulated in the 2005 Higher Education Act (Hochschulgesetz 2005), the 2002 Universities Act (Universitätsgesetz 2002) and the Act on Quality Assurance in Higher Education (Hochschul-Qualitätssicherungsgesetz). The major legal bases for quality assurance in the apprenticeship training system are laid down in the Vocational Training Act (Berufsausbildungsgesetz, BAG).


Tertiary Level

The laws which are relevant for quality assurance in tertiary education are the Universities Act, the Act on Quality Assurance in Higher Education, the 2005 Higher Education Act and the Federal Act on Private Universities.


Adult Education

An agreement concluded between the Federal Government and the provinces forms the legal basis of the Quality framework for the adult education sector in Austria (Ö-CERT).

The Federal Institute for Adult Education (BIFEB) is a service of the Federal Ministry of Education (BMB) based on the Federal Act on the Promotion of Adult Education and Public Libraries from Federal Funds (Bundesgesetz über die Förderung der Erwachsenenbildung und des Volksbüchereiwesens aus Bundesmitteln).

The Adult Education Initiative is based on an agreement concluded between the Federal Government and the provinces (Bundesländer) on the funding of basic education/basic skills programmes for adults and of programmes for adults to resume and complete compulsory schooling, therefore the initiative is a uniform funding scheme throughout Austria.