Skip to main content
← All Universities

Country Guide

🇦🇹 Best Universities in Austria for International Students

2 universities evaluated for international families. Tier ratings across 6 dimensions, plus visa, cost, and application context.

Why study in Austria?

Austria pairs near-free tuition with a high quality of life, anchored by Vienna — repeatedly a top-two global livability city. The University of Vienna (1365) is the oldest in the German-speaking world and a humanities/social-sciences powerhouse, while TU Wien is the country's leading science-and-technology university with rising engineering and architecture standing. EU/EEA students pay only the small student-union fee; even non-EU tuition (~EUR 726/semester) is a fraction of Anglo-American levels. The catch: undergraduate teaching is overwhelmingly German-medium (C1 required), so non-German speakers concentrate at the growing English-taught master's level, and the big public universities run large, impersonal lecture cohorts. A 12-month post-study job-seeker visa plus the Red-White-Red Card aid graduate retention. Best for German-capable students seeking elite-value education in a world-class city.

Sources: official university disclosures, government visa pages (last verified 2026-Q2). See our editorial standards.

Quick facts

Post-Study Work

Student residence permit; 12-month job-seeker visa post-graduation, then Red-White-Red Card route to work/residency

Application System

Direct application; German-medium bachelor's (C1 required) with growing English-taught master's; some capped programs use entrance exams

International Tuition

EU/EEA: only ~EUR 26/semester student-union fee (free within standard period); non-EU ~EUR 726/semester (~USD 785)

BrightKey evaluates 2 universities in Austria, with 2 carrying full editorial profiles (research-grade reviews).

Best universities in Austria by focus area

Filtered views of our 2-university dataset. Click any university for the full BrightKey profile.

Strongest career outcomes in Austria

Sorted by S-tier and A-tier counts across our 6 dimensions.

Most well-rounded in Austria

High count of S- and A-tier dimensions across the board.

All 2 universities in Austria

Tier ratings across our 6 dimensions. Click any university for the full profile. How we score →

UniversityNetworkEmployabilityTeachingCurriculumInstitutionalStudent
TU WienReviewedBABAAA
University of ViennaReviewedABBBAA

Need help choosing a university in Austria?

Book a free 30-minute consultation with Priscilla.

Book a consultation