Shortage subjects: Upper Austria reserves 10 medical study places

Whether medical officers or medical professionals in the fields of psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, pathology and nuclear medicine: there is a particular shortage of doctors in these areas. On Tuesday, State Governor Thomas Stelzer, the LH deputy responsible for health agendas Christine Haberlander (both VP) and JKU Rector Stefan Koch presented a model that is intended to remedy the situation.

As reported, from the 2024/25 academic year, 85 medical study places across Austria can be dedicated in the public interest for selected candidates. There are ten study places in Upper Austria. Information about the applications, which are possible from March 1st to 29th, is available with the state of Upper Austria and at the Gesundheitsholding.

Benefits and obligations

The study places reserved in Upper Austria come with benefits, but also obligations. Anyone who gets one of the study places must work for at least ten years after completing their training either as a medical officer in the state service or in one of the subjects mentioned in a health holding hospital.

In return, applicants have easier access to medical studies and receive 1,000 euros a year during their studies through employment with the state’s health holding company. “This shows how important this is to us,” said Governor Stelzer.

The selection of candidates takes place in two steps. Step one is an application to the state (for young people who are interested in a career as a medical officer) or to the health holding company (for hospital doctor careers). After this pre-selection, applicants must pass the medical entrance test – and achieve at least 75 percent of the points. However, they are not subject to the general quota when selecting university applicants.

Pay attention to social skills

This recording mode “also gives us the opportunity to pay attention to the empathy and social skills of the applicants,” says Haberlander. Voluntary work should also be taken into account here.

For the time being, the model is limited to the hospitals of the state-owned health holding and the state service. “We will also involve the religious hospitals in the coming years,” said Haberlander. In the first year, the aim is to try out the model reliably with the country’s service law.

With the reserved study places, a focus is placed on selected subjects, said Haberlander. “We are training more medical students than ever before, and there are more doctors than ever before. But there are certain deficient subjects.”

Unfortunately, the general shortage of employees is also evident in the hospitals, which made it all the more important that Upper Austria fought for the medical faculty at the Kepler University, said Stelzer.

Success story of the Med Faculty

This is going into its tenth year this year and is “a success story,” said JKU Rector Stefan Koch. In the 2024/25 academic year there will be 320 beginner study places at the JKU Med Faculty. “Without these places, medical care would be in a completely different situation,” said Koch.

Linz City Councilor for Health Michael Raml (FP) and FP club boss Herwig Mahr were pleased about the reserved study places. This makes it possible to bind medical students to Upper Austria in the long term. SP health spokesman Peter Binder also saw an “important step in the right direction”, but called for further measures, especially at the federal level. “So it’s important to finally move away from the entrance test, which reflects more the state of the day than the competence and talent of young people,” he says.

Approval of the project also comes from Upper Austria’s Medical Association. “It is positive that young colleagues who decide to work in public health care are supported,” says Medical Association President Peter Niedermoser. And unlike other proposals, the obligation in this model is based on a voluntary decision.