Record Turnout for MedAT: Nearly 17,000 Applicants Compete for 1,950 Spots

The distribution of test-takers reflects this weighting: 6,573 people took the exam in Vienna, 2,630 in Innsbruck, 2,321 in Graz, and 1,724 in Wels.

The test runs for several hours and assesses knowledge in medically relevant subjects such as biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics, as well as cognitive abilities including memorization and the recognition of implications. Ten percent of the result depends on the reading comprehension section, and an equal share on the section covering emotion recognition and social decision-making. Candidates for dental medicine take a wire-bending test instead of the reading comprehension section.

Test Format and Content

Medical studies have long attracted the largest number of applicants among domestic admission procedures. The number of test participants has thus risen by almost 1,000 compared to the previous year, as APA reported on Friday, citing evaluations.

A specific quota system accompanies the procedure: At least 95 percent of spots are reserved for EU citizens, and 75 percent go to applicants holding an Austrian school-leaving certificate (Reifeprüfungszeugnis). Additionally, 87 spots are being set aside this year for tasks in the public interest—up from 85 the year before.

Quotas and Reserved Places

Anyone applying for one of these reserved places must achieve a lower score on the test but is required in return to work for several years after graduation at a public institution—such as the Austrian Health Insurance Fund (Österreichische Gesundheitskasse), the Ministry of Defence, or other bodies—serving as a panel physician, hospital doctor, military doctor, or public health officer.

Anita Rieder, Vice Rector for Teaching at the Medical University of Vienna, identified several trends at a press conference before the test began. The number of applicants from other EU countries, especially Germany, has declined in recent years and now stands at just over ten percent. A second trend: after years of relatively constant applications for dental medicine, interest in the field has risen by around 30 percent over the past two years, according to Rieder.

The high demand is also an expression of a broader social imbalance. As a study published in 2017 at the three public medical universities showed, many students have parents who themselves studied medicine. In total, 45 percent of surveyed first-year students reported having doctors in their family. For 20 percent, the father was a doctor; for 6 percent, the mother.

Social Imbalance: Children of Academics at an Advantage

A 2025 IHS student social survey additionally shows that the share of students with at least one parent holding a university degree is 58 percent at medical universities—significantly above the average of 45 percent across all types of higher education institutions. The social filtering becomes especially clear in the case of the Medical University of Vienna: in 2019/20, 40 percent of those registered came from non-academic households, but among those actually enrolled, the figure was only 31 percent.

According to a 2020 IHS evaluation, the admission procedures introduced in the early 2000s and tightened in 2006 have actually intensified social selectivity in medical studies. The Centrum für Hochschulentwicklung (CHE) found for 2023/24 that just under 43 percent of first-year medical students fall into the group whose father does not hold a university degree—five years earlier, that figure was still 47 percent. This has widened the gap to the federal government's goal that, by 2025, half of all first-year students in human or dental medicine should come from a non-academic household.

The Austrian National Union of Students (ÖH) continues to criticize the procedure. Those from non-academic households are systematically disadvantaged. Instead of social filters at the admission stage, compensatory mechanisms need to be created so that all applicants have a fair chance, the ÖH stated. It announced its intention to evaluate the procedure and remove social barriers.

Many Test-Takers Come with Prior Experience

A key reason for the high number of repeat attempts is that only a minority secure a study place on their first try of the nationally standardized entrance test. For the 2018/19 academic year, the IHS calculated that just four out of ten applicants succeeded on their first attempt. Another roughly 40 percent made it on their second try. In the current 2025 procedure at the Medical University of Vienna, half of the test participants were not sitting the exam for the first time. Thirty percent were taking it for the second time; for eleven percent, it was their third attempt.

Those who have just graduated from secondary school are particularly unlikely to succeed: only seven percent of the 2025 graduating class obtained a study place at the Medical University of Vienna on their first attempt the previous year. One-third of the spots went to applicants from the 2024 graduating class, and 28 percent to those from the 2023 class.

According to an APA analysis, at least at the Medical University of Vienna, the 50-percent threshold was narrowly cleared in the past two years—meaning slightly more than half of those who sat the exam received a study place. However, this success rate does not put the overall figure of 16,880 registrations for 1,950 spots in perspective: those who pass the test get the spot, but the competition beforehand is enormous.

The Austrian Medical Chamber sees the bottlenecks less at the admission stage and more after graduation. To ensure the supply of doctors, the focus should be placed after completion of studies rather than at the beginning. The hospital operators—and thus policymakers—subsequently offer too few training positions for graduates.

Expansion for Now Coming to an End

The number of medical study places at public universities will be slightly increased again the year after next, reaching 2,000—but this will conclude the planned expansion program. No further increase is currently envisaged, even though applicant numbers continue to rise.

The MedAT is thus not only a mass procedure but also a mirror image of the education system: those who come from a family with a university degree have statistically significantly better chances of securing a spot. What reforms policymakers will follow up with after the announced evaluation process will show whether the goal of a more accessible medical education can actually be achieved.