Diplom - Austria

Austria

In Austria the Diploma-curriculum is divided in three parts:
1) The first diploma exermination (prediploma), which has to be absolved in up to 3 years
2a) The first part of second diploma exermination, which has to be absolved in 5 years
2b) The second part of diploma exermination contains the diploma thesis (this has to be completed depending on university between 6 and 12 month) and its "rigorosum" in front of the exermining board (which has to be absolved in one to two month after completing the diploma thesis). (Note: The title rigorosum nowadays is only allowed for PhD-curricula and the Diploma-Curriculum in Medicine in all other cases it is called final exam).

After absolving a Diploma-program in Austria the academic title "Mag. rer. nat" (for natural science) or "Mag. phil" (for philosophies and social science) is given.
The overall assessment of the Diploma has to be "pass", when there is no grad lower than 4 or "pass with distinction", if the average of all examinations in 2a is at least 1.5 and there is no grade lower than 2; if the diploma thesis in 2b has a grade of 1.0 and the final exam is also assessed with "pass with distinction" (which requires a concordant decision of the exermining board, that the candidate did an outstanding performance)

Although in Germany a Diploma has an average duration time of 10 semester, in Austria people mostly pass their program after 15 to 18 semester. So the introduction of Bachelor- and Masterdegrees causes an enormious shortening of duration time in Austria, which was followed by much critique there.