English-Taught Degrees in Austria: Master's & Bachelor's

A Thursday evening in Vienna’s ninth district, in a seminar room a few minutes’ walk from the WU campus. A master’s class in supply-chain management is running over time, and the argument going back and forth across the table is in English — fluent, fast, technical English. The student making the case grew up in Mumbai; the one pushing back is from Bogotá; the professor is Austrian. Nobody in the room is speaking German, and nobody needs to in order to be there. The degree these students are taking is delivered, examined and supervised in English from the first lecture to the thesis defence, and for an EU citizen it costs the price of a student-union fee — about €50 a year. This is the side of Austrian higher education that the “you must speak German” reputation hides: there is a real, growing English-taught layer, and at master’s level it is genuinely deep.

Here is the bottom line. Austria’s English-taught offering is concentrated at master’s level, where universities such as WU Vienna, TU Wien and the University of Vienna run programmes taught entirely in English in business, computer science, the sciences and international studies. At public universities these English degrees are free for EU students (the ÖH fee of about €25.20 a semester) and €726.72 a semester for non-EU students — the same model as German-taught degrees, according to the Austrian Students’ Union (ÖH) and university fee pages. You enter on a TOEFL iBT 88+ or IELTS 6.5+ score, not a German certificate. The catch is the bachelor’s level: the public English choice is narrow, so a full English bachelor’s usually means a fee-charging private university in Vienna.

This guide is the focused companion to our complete guide to studying in Austria — read that for the full picture on the German-language system, the MedAT, residence permits, living costs and careers, which apply to every route. Here I stay on one question: what English-taught study in Austria actually looks like, which universities hold the programmes, what it costs, what English score gets you in, and how to decide between the public master’s route and a private English bachelor’s.

English-Taught Study in Austria, Key Data 2025/2026

Source: ÖH and university fee pages; QS World University Rankings 2026; oead.at, 2025/26.

What “English-taught” really means in the Austrian system

Austrian higher education is, by default, a German-language system. Most public bachelor’s degrees are taught in German and require a C1 certificate, and that single requirement, more than cost or selectivity, is what stops most international applicants — the main Austria guide covers that route in full. The English-taught layer is a deliberate, parallel offering built mainly to bring international students into postgraduate and research programmes, and it behaves differently from the German-language system around it.

The distinction that matters in practice: you are not choosing an “English university.” You are choosing one English-medium programme attached to a university that otherwise runs in German. Your degree is delivered and assessed in English end to end, but the campus administration, the residence office, the flat listings and the city itself operate in German. The coursework asks nothing of your German; daily life asks a fair amount. That gap is the most underrated fact about this route, and it is worth planning around from the start — the public universities give all students free access to German classes, and the students who thrive use them.

The offering is also lopsided by level, and understanding why saves a lot of fruitless searching. Master’s degrees are shorter, more specialised and more international, so building them in English is straightforward and the international demand is deep; the classic Austrian bachelor’s, by contrast, remains the heartland of German-language teaching. The first question to settle, then, is not which university but which level: a public English master’s is broadly available, while a full English bachelor’s usually means either one of a handful of public exceptions or a fee-charging private university in Vienna.

Where the English programmes actually are

Go straight to the institutions that run established English catalogues — that is where the depth, the reputation and the job pipeline concentrate. Two groups matter: the public universities with English-taught master’s (free for EU students), and the private universities in Vienna that teach fully in English and hold the real English bachelor’s depth, at private tuition. The table below curates both; treat any overall QS rank as a rough map of reputation, not a ranking of English programmes specifically.

On the public side, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business is the standout — it holds the “Triple Crown” of business accreditations (AACSB, EQUIS, AMBA) that fewer than 1% of business schools achieve, ranks around #69 worldwide in QS Business & Management, and runs both an English-taught Bachelor of Business and Economics (BBE) and a deep menu of English master’s in management, finance, economics and data science. TU Wien (QS #197) and TU Graz (QS #427) run English-taught master’s across engineering, computer science and the technical sciences; the University of Vienna (QS #152) carries English master’s in the natural sciences, data science and international studies and runs one of the few English-taught public bachelor’s (data science). BOKU Vienna is a world leader in the life and environmental sciences with international, English-medium master’s, and the University of Graz and University of Innsbruck (QS #350) add English master’s in the sciences and social sciences.

On the private side, Vienna has an unusually strong cluster of fully English-medium universities — and this, not the public system, is where a complete English bachelor’s lives. Webster Vienna Private University, the Vienna campus of the US institution, teaches American-style English bachelor’s and master’s in business, psychology, international relations and media. MODUL University Vienna builds its English bachelor’s and master’s around tourism, hospitality, management and sustainability, and Lauder Business School runs a tight English-taught business catalogue at both levels. Central European University is the cluster’s most prestigious name but sits apart from it: headquartered in Vienna since its move from Budapest, CEU is an internationally respected English-language graduate university in the social sciences, humanities and public policy — the place for a master’s, not a bachelor’s. Together these private institutions charge tuition, but they fill the English-bachelor’s gap the public system leaves open.

The master’s-heavy reality — and how to use it

So plan around the shape of the offer, because it dictates everything downstream. The handful of English-taught public bachelor’s that exist — WU Vienna’s Bachelor of Business and Economics and the University of Vienna’s data-science bachelor are the best-known — are exceptions, not a pattern. For most fields, an English bachelor’s at a public university simply is not on the menu, and the English depth you can see in the table is almost entirely postgraduate.

That shape has a clear strategic implication, and it is one we recommend to families often. If you do not speak German, an Austrian master’s in English is one of the best-value postgraduate qualifications in Europe: a strong, EU-recognised degree, taught entirely in English, for about €50 a year in tuition (EU) or €1,453 (non-EU) plus living costs, with a 12-month job-seeker permit and the Red-White-Red Card route on the other side. So the sequencing that works is to take your bachelor’s at home, in another English-medium system, or at a Vienna private university, then enter a free, English-taught public master’s in your specialism. Because the master’s choice is so much wider, you can usually find your field in English somewhere in the Austrian system.

If you are set on an English bachelor’s in Austria, weigh the two honest options. The first is one of the public exceptions — WU’s BBE or the University of Vienna’s data-science bachelor — which are free for EU students but limited to those fields. The second is a private university in Vienna — Webster Vienna, MODUL or Lauder Business School — which gives you a full English-medium environment and a broader subject menu, but charges tuition of roughly €8,000–€18,000 a year. (CEU is the obvious Vienna name for English study, but it admits only at master’s and PhD level, so it is not a bachelor’s route.) There is no free, broad English bachelor’s the way there is a free English master’s. If the bachelor’s choice feels too thin and you want a deep English-language bachelor’s catalogue in the EU, our guide to English-taught degrees in the Netherlands covers the continental system built around exactly that.

Cost — free public master’s, fee-charging private bachelor’s

The single most important cost fact is that, at public universities, the fee model does not change with the language of instruction. An English-taught master’s at WU Vienna, TU Wien or the University of Vienna carries the same fee as a German-taught one: EU, EEA and Swiss students pay only the ÖH student-union fee of about €25.20 per semester (around €50 a year) within the standard study time; non-EU students pay €726.72 per semester (about €1,453 a year). So for an EU student, an English-taught public master’s in Austria is, in tuition terms, effectively free. The expensive line — as everywhere in Austria — is living, which runs to roughly €11,400–€14,000 a year in Vienna and less in Graz or Innsbruck, covered in full in the main Austria guide.

The exception is the private universities, and it is worth naming precisely because it is where most of the English-bachelor’s depth sits. Webster Vienna, MODUL University Vienna, Lauder Business School and Central European University teach in English but charge real tuition — roughly €8,000–€18,000 a year, varying by institution and programme, with CEU offering substantial scholarships at graduate level. They sit outside the public-fee system, so the €50-a-year EU figure does not apply to them. The trade is the familiar one: a guaranteed all-English environment and a broader English bachelor’s menu, in exchange for tuition closer to what you would pay elsewhere in Europe.

English-Taught Costs at a Glance

Tuition only, 2025/26. Add living costs of roughly €11,400–€14,000/year in Vienna, covered in the main Austria guide.

Source: ÖH and university fee pages; private-university tuition pages, 2025/26. EU figures are the ÖH fee within the standard study time. Confirm the exact figure on the programme page for your intake year.

The English requirement — what score you actually need

Every English-taught programme runs admission on an English certificate, and being precise about the threshold saves a wasted application cycle. The standard ask is TOEFL iBT 88+ or IELTS Academic 6.5+. The more competitive business and computer-science master’s — WU and TU Wien in particular — sit higher, commonly TOEFL 95+ or IELTS 7.0. Many programmes also accept Cambridge C1 Advanced, and some waive the test if your previous degree was taught entirely in English at a recognised institution. The accepted list and exact cutoff vary by university and programme, so read the language requirement on the specific programme page rather than assuming.

If you are preparing for the TOEFL, structured practice against a realistic scoring engine matters more than raw hours. Our TOEFL app runs full-length practice sections with AI-graded speaking and writing — the closest thing to a real iBT you can do from home. In our advising experience, most students need eight to fourteen weeks of focused work to move from a 70-ish baseline into the 95+ band that Austria’s most competitive English programmes increasingly expect.

From the College Council desk. The mistake we most often correct on Austria is treating it as a German-only country. Families rule it out because of the C1 requirement, never realising that the master’s they actually want is offered in English, free, at WU or TU Wien. The German bar is real for public bachelor’s; for postgraduate study it frequently is not a bar at all. Check the language of instruction on your specific programme before you cross Austria off the list.

English-Taught vs the German-Taught Route

The genuine choice most applicants face in Austria is not which English programme but English-taught or learn German. The honest comparison:

Source: ÖH; official university language requirements; oead.at, 2025/26.

The way the decision usually resolves: if you want a master’s, or your field is one of the English-rich ones — management and finance, computing and data science, the natural and life sciences, international affairs — take the English route. It is dramatically faster to qualify for, the fees are the same near-zero for EU students, and you walk away with an identical Austrian degree and the same 12-month post-study permit. If you want a broad bachelor’s choice, intend to build a career in Austria long-term, or are aiming at a subject taught only in German (much of the humanities, law, most professional fields), the German-taught route is worth the one-to-two years it takes to reach C1, because it opens the entire system. The students who get the most out of Austria, in our experience, study in English where their field allows but learn German seriously alongside it, so that by graduation the language is no longer the thing standing between them and a job.

How College Council helps

English-taught study in Austria is exactly the kind of thing that is hard to research from the outside: the offering is deep at master’s level and thin at public bachelor’s, the same university charges €50 a year for an EU student and €1,453 for a non-EU one on the identical English programme, and the genuinely broad English bachelor’s sit at fee-charging private universities that do not always surface in a quick search. Those are the details we map out with families, drawing on the same university data that powers this guide — every Austrian university is in our Atlas, with location, programmes and admission data, alongside tens of thousands more worldwide. Start by creating a free College Council account and running your profile through our chances tool to see which English-taught Austrian programmes — and which alternatives across Europe — actually fit you.

On the testing side, every English-taught route into Austria runs on a strong TOEFL or IELTS score, and many of our families apply to Austria alongside the US or the UK, where the SAT matters. Our TOEFL app delivers full TOEFL iBT practice tests with AI-graded speaking and writing feedback, and our SAT app runs the full digital SAT with adaptive practice, so you can prepare once and apply broadly. If German-language tracks are also on your list, the main Austria guide covers the C1 requirement, the MedAT and the residence-permit process in full.

Frequently Asked Questions

Summary — is an English-taught Austrian degree right for you?

English-taught study in Austria is a real and, for EU students, remarkably cheap option, with one structural quirk to plan around: the catalogue is deep at master’s level and thin at public bachelor’s level. If you want a master’s in business, computer science, the sciences or international studies, you can get a strong, EU-recognised degree taught entirely in English for about €50 a year in tuition as an EU student (€1,453 as a non-EU student), plus living costs of roughly €11,400–€14,000 a year in Vienna — and a 12-month job-seeker permit and the Red-White-Red Card route waiting at the end. For a full English bachelor’s, the realistic options are a public exception like WU’s BBE or a fee-charging private university in Vienna.

Decide your level first — bachelor’s or master’s — because it dictates the entire shortlist and whether the public free route is even open to you. Then weigh the English route against committing the one-to-two years it takes to learn German to C1, which opens the whole system. For most international students seeking a postgraduate degree, the public English master’s is the obvious play; for a broad English bachelor’s, look to Vienna’s private universities or another EU system.

Next Steps

1. Decide bachelor’s or master’s — the public English offer is deep at master’s and thin at bachelor’s; your level sets the shortlist and the cost.
2. Check the language of instruction — confirm your specific programme is taught in English (and that German is waived for admission) before you assume Austria needs C1.
3. Build a balanced shortlist — create a free College Council account and run your profile through our chances tool.
4. Book your English test early — most English programmes want TOEFL iBT 88+ or IELTS 6.5+; prepare in our TOEFL app.
5. Read the full picture — the main Austria guide covers living costs, residence permits and the German-language route that apply to every applicant.

Read Also

• Study in Austria: complete guide for international students — the full picture: universities, costs, the MedAT, visa and careers
• English-taught degrees in the Netherlands — the EU system built around a deep English-language bachelor’s catalogue
• English-taught degrees in Germany — the larger German-speaking neighbour with 2,000+ English programmes
• Study in Germany: complete guide for international students — the same near-free model at far larger scale
• How to choose a university abroad — comparing systems before you commit

Sources and Methodology

The university selection, fee tiers and entry requirements are drawn from official Austrian university sources, the ÖH and oead.at, and cross-checked against College Council’s Atlas dataset of Austrian higher-education institutions. The English-taught offering is large and evolving — programme lists, fees and language thresholds change between intake years — so we lead with the verified institution set, levels and fee tiers rather than per-programme specifics, and we recommend confirming the exact figure on the relevant programme page before applying. University strengths and ranks reference the QS World University Rankings 2026.

1. Austrian Students’ Union (ÖH) — ÖH student-union fee (~€25.20 per semester; the EU fee applies to English-taught and German-taught public programmes alike, 2025/26)
2. WU Vienna — Tuition fees / ÖH dues and English-taught programmes (Bachelor of Business and Economics + English master’s; EU ÖH fee, non-EU €726.72/sem; QS Business ~#69)
3. TU Graz — Tuition fees and the ÖH fee (EU ÖH fee; non-EU €726.72/sem; English-taught master’s catalogue)
4. University of Vienna — Studies / English-taught programmes (English master’s and the English data-science bachelor; fee structure)
5. OeAD — Study in Austria / entry and residence (TOEFL/IELTS for English-taught entry; 12-month post-study job-seeker permit; Red-White-Red Card route)
6. QS / TopUniversities — QS World University Rankings 2026 (University of Vienna #152, TU Wien #197, Innsbruck #350, TU Graz #427, University of Graz #668; WU Vienna ~#69 in Business & Management)
7. Webster Vienna, MODUL University Vienna, Lauder Business School, Central European University — official admissions and tuition pages (fully English-medium private universities in Vienna; tuition roughly €8,000–€18,000/yr; CEU graduate scholarships)
8. College Council — Atlas higher-education dataset (Austrian HEI identity, location and programme data; Wikidata-keyed canonical records) and internal advising experience with international applicant families