Private universities in Austria with the right to offer educational programs leading to an academic degree, must be awarded state recognition. This recognition can be obtained through accreditation by the Austrian Accreditation Council (Österreichischen Akkreditierungsrat ÖAR).
The Accreditation Council is a state authority, which assesses the quality of private universities through an accreditation procedure.
Furthermore, the Austrian Accreditation Council supports the quality development of these institutions.
The resolution to award private universities accreditation is free from any directives and is solely founded on aspects of quality referring to international standards and is reached by an expert panel. This panel includes experts from European universities, comprising half from Austria and half from other European countries. This guarantees justifiable and independently made decisions by the council, which remain free from conflicting national interests.
The legal basis for the activities of the Austrian Accreditation Council is the federal law on the accreditation of educational institutions as private universities.
(University Accreditation Act - UniAkkG 1999).
For detailed information on the accreditation of private universities in Austria, visit the website of the Austrian Accreditation Council: http://www.akkreditierungsrat.at/
The Paracelsus Medical University was established in November 2002 by the International Accreditation Council and the Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Culture and accredited for a period of five years. Click here to view the accreditation decision. Re-accreditation was issued on 26 November 2007 for a second accreditation period of 5 years.
