Austria: no state exam, but Nostrifizierung and the pharmacist's Aspirantenprüfung

Medical and health education in Austria

Austria's medical degree is a six-year diploma programme leading to the title Dr. med. univ., offered at the public medical universities in Vienna, Graz and Innsbruck and the Johannes Kepler University in Linz, with private options such as Paracelsus in Salzburg and Karl Landsteiner in Krems. Places are limited and allocated through the MedAT admission test. Teaching is in German. Dentistry is a six-year programme, pharmacy about four to five years, and nursing is now taught at university of applied sciences level.

After graduation, doctors complete a basic training period of about nine months, then either general-practice training or specialist training of several years. Admission to the register of physicians at the Austrian Medical Chamber (Ärztekammer) is required to practise, and holders of non-EU degrees usually need their degree recognised (nostrification) first. Accreditation of programmes is overseen by the Austrian quality agency AQ Austria and the federal ministries, so confirm the details with the Chamber before applying.

An exam-light system with one real gate: Nostrifizierung

If you came to this page looking for the Austrian equivalent of a national licensing paper, there is not one. Austria is a country where the training institution carries the quality assurance. A graduate of a medical university (Dr. med. univ.) enters the Basisausbildung and then specialist training. A nursing graduate from a Fachhochschule (FH) completes a final commission exam at the FH and registers. In neither case does a state body set a separate multiple-choice test.

What Austria does have is Nostrifizierung. This is the formal recognition of a foreign degree as equivalent to an Austrian one, and for non-EU graduates it is the main obstacle. Because the university decides which subjects you must re-examine, no two files are quite alike. Candidates should expect written exams, oral exams and sometimes practical or OSCE-style assessments, depending on the profession and the university.

Who needs a licensing exam in Austria

• Austrian-trained doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists, physiotherapists: no licensing exam. Registration by qualification.
• Austrian-trained pharmacists: the Prüfung für den Apothekerberuf after the Aspirantenjahr.
• Non-EU graduates, all professions: Nostrifizierung, with supplementary exams where the authority finds gaps, plus German language proof.
• EU/EEA graduates: automatic or general-system recognition under the EU directive, with language checks at registration.

Doctors

Austrian medical students enter through the MedAT, an admission test for the places at the public medical universities. Passing it gets you a seat, and it has nothing to do with licensing. After the degree, there is no state exam. The Facharztprüfung, the specialist exam, comes at the end of residency and is organised through the ÖÄK and the Akademie der Ärzte.

Foreign-trained doctors

Non-EU doctors apply for Nostrifizierung at a medical university, for example Vienna, Graz or Innsbruck. The university publishes an information sheet (Merkblatt) on the process, and it decides which subjects must be examined. The ÖÄK also runs a German language exam under its language examination regulation (Sprachprüfungs-Verordnung).

1. Submit the Nostrifizierung application to the university with degree, transcripts and course descriptions.
2. Receive the list of subjects you must re-sit. The university sets it.
3. Pass the university exams. Formats are written, oral or OSCE, depending on the subject.
4. Pass the ÖÄK German exam.
5. Register with the ÖÄK and start the Basisausbildung or specialist training.

Pharmacists

Pharmacy is the one profession in this group with a defined post-degree exam. A pharmacy graduate completes the Aspirantenjahr, a 12-month supervised placement, and then sits the Prüfung für den Apothekerberuf in front of the Austrian Chamber of Pharmacists. It is written and oral, and its content is set out in a federal regulation published in the Bundesgesetzblatt. It is a niche exam with small cohorts, which means little commercially published practice material.

Non-EU pharmacists first nostrify their degree at a university, then complete the Aspirantenjahr and take the same exam.

Nurses, midwives, dentists and physiotherapists

Nurses (DGKP) now qualify through an FH Bachelor, ending in a final commission exam at the FH. Midwives and physiotherapists likewise qualify through FH programmes. Dentists complete the Dr. med. dent. at a medical university. None of these has a national licensing exam.

Foreign applicants follow the Nostrifizierung procedure. For non-EU nurses, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the regional authorities may require supplementary exams or practical placements, and German at B2 is typically expected. Midwives and physiotherapists nostrify at an FH, with supplementary exams as needed. Non-EU dentists nostrify at a medical university with supplementary exams, and German is required.

Exams at a glance

Language

German is the language of every exam and procedure, and Austrian German is spoken in speech, with its own vocabulary in everyday clinical use (Spital, Jänner, Obers). Doctors take the ÖÄK German exam, and the other professions generally show B2. The University of Vienna and other institutions publish current requirements in their Nostrifizierung sheets.

Where practice questions help

Because Austrian exams are set locally, you will not find a national question bank to match. What does transfer is clinical knowledge: the subjects on a Nostrifizierung list are usually the core pre-clinical and clinical subjects that any European curriculum covers. Aspirants preparing for the pharmacy exam need legal knowledge of Austrian pharmacy law as well.

Choosing a university for Nostrifizierung

Austria has several medical universities (Vienna, Graz, Innsbruck, and the Medical Faculty in Linz), and each publishes its own procedure. The core subject lists are similar, but timelines, examiner availability and fees differ. Candidates sometimes assume that the first university they apply to must be the one that examines them, so check whether your choice of place is flexible and how long the queue is.

Preparation should follow the university's list. Expect subjects of the pre-clinical and clinical years, examined in German. Oral exams need clinical German, which is not the same as general B2. Practise explaining a mechanism or a differential aloud. For the ÖÄK language exam, rehearse patient dialogue, documentation and case presentation, as these are the elements doctors report as the hardest.

Aspirants in pharmacy should combine the exam syllabus with a study of the Austrian regulations on pharmacy practice, narcotics and prescription rules.

Using this page

For doctors, the ÖÄK and your university are authoritative. For pharmacists, the Apothekerkammer. Rules about Nostrifizierung differ by institution and change between years, so confirm before you apply. TriagePass is independent of these bodies.

Last reviewed October 2026