IB Diploma: University Admission in Austria

Fee figures: catalogue of 6 October 2026.

Austrian universities treat the IB Diploma as a foreign school-leaving certificate. There is no national formula that turns IB points into an Austrian grade, because Austrian public universities do not rank applicants by school grades. What matters is whether your diploma meets the conditions of the institution you apply to, and whether you can prove the language of teaching.

How the IB is recognised

There is no central recognition office for school certificates. Each university, Fachhochschule or private university checks your diploma itself during admission. The rule of thumb in Austria is that your certificate must give access to the same kind of programme where it was issued. The IB Diploma is a special case: the issuing country is always Switzerland, wherever you went to school, so it needs no apostille or legalisation. See document recognition for Austria.

An IB Certificate for individual courses is not enough. You need the full Diploma.

The conditions universities apply

The conditions are published by each institution, and they are similar but not identical.

University of Vienna

at least 24 points;
at least six examination subjects, including a foreign language (German counts) and mathematics;
at least three subjects at Higher Level.

Montanuniversität Leoben is stricter:

six subjects, at most seven;
three or four subjects at Higher Level, the rest at Standard Level;
at least 12 points in total in the three Higher Level subjects;
at least 24 points overall;
a grade of at least 3 in every subject.

Leoben asks for the IB Diploma and the Transcript of Grades with the application. If your diploma misses a condition, a university can admit you on condition that you pass supplementary exams (Ergänzungsprüfungen). Check the admission page of each university you apply to.

No ranking by IB points

Most bachelor's programmes at public universities admit everyone who qualifies. Where places are limited, the selection is done by an entrance test or a selection procedure, not by school grades. So a higher IB score does not improve your chances, but a missing Higher Level subject can block your application. Fachhochschulen and private universities run their own tests and interviews.

German

Most bachelor's programmes are taught in German, often at C1. The IB does not prove this: at the University of Vienna, German taken as an IB subject counts only as A2 and does not replace the C1 certificate needed for admission as a regular student. You can still apply, and the university can require you to pass a German exam before you start. The OeAD pre-study courses in Vienna and Graz prepare for it. See German language exams: TestDaF and DSH.

For English-taught programmes, each institution decides whether your IB studies in English are enough or a test is needed. See bachelor's degrees in English in Austria.

Timing

IB results for the May session come out in early July. In Austria this rarely causes problems for public universities, where the general admission deadline for the winter semester is 5 September. Applicants with a non-EU certificate should still apply months earlier, because checking foreign documents takes time. Fachhochschulen and programmes with entrance tests close much earlier, sometimes six months before the semester, so you will usually apply before your results are out and submit the final diploma once you have it.

Medicine

Medicine and dentistry at the public medical universities use one shared test, the MedAT, and admission depends on the test result, not on IB points. For 2027:

registration and payment of the €110 fee are expected from 1 to 31 March 2027;
the test is expected on 9 July 2027.

Places are allocated by quota. At least 75% of places in human medicine go to applicants with a school-leaving certificate from Austria, and applicants from outside the EU can receive at most 5%. The MedAT information does not say how an IB Diploma from a school in Austria is assigned to a quota, so ask the medical university before you register. German at C1 is required for medicine as well.

Documents

Prepare the IB Diploma and the Transcript of Grades issued by the IB, not a certificate written by your school. Because the IB counts as issued in Switzerland, no apostille is needed. Scan every page and follow the upload instructions of each institution; keep the originals for enrolment and for a residence permit if you need one. See student visa for Austria.

Where to look next

Official sources

Always check current information on the official website of the university before you apply.