Ministry of Science and Education extend tuition fee regulation until winter semester 2026/27

On October 22, 2026, the Federal Minister for Women, Science and Research and the Federal Minister for Education promulgated the regulation BGBl. II No. 307/2026 in the Federal Law Gazette for the Republic of Austria, Part II, amending the Tuition Fee Regulation. The amendment updates the semesters mentioned in §§ 4a to 4c to the winter semester 2026/27. It enters into force at the end of the day of promulgation.

Three Changes to the Semester List

The regulation is limited to three brief, technically formulated interventions in the main text:

• In § 4a, the sequence of words and numbers “the winter semester 2024/2025,” is deleted; after “the summer semester 2025,” the word “and” is replaced by a comma, and after “the winter semester 2025/2026,” “and the summer semester 2026” is inserted.
• In § 4b and § 4c, the sequence of words and numbers “summer semester 2026” is replaced in each case by “winter semester 2026/2027.”
• A paragraph 10 is added to § 7, which regulates the entry into force of §§ 4a to 4c in the version of regulation BGBl. II No. 307/2026.

Thus, the semester list is not rewritten, but updated: a semester that has already expired is removed, the current winter semester 2026/27 is added, and the following two paragraphs are aligned with the same period.

Two Ministries, Two Responsibilities

The regulation is issued jointly by two departments because the Tuition Fee Regulation covers two groups of institutions. It is explicitly ordered that the regulation is issued by the Federal Minister for Women, Science and Research “with regard to the institutions mentioned in § 1 Z 1” and by the Federal Minister for Education “with regard to the institutions mentioned in § 1 Z 2.”

The promulgation sheet cites the following legal bases:

• §§ 91 para. 6 and 92 para. 1 no. 3a of the Universities Act 2002, BGBl. I No. 120/2002, last amended by a federal law of 2026.
• §§ 69 para. 6 and 71 para. 6 of the Higher Education Act 2005, BGBl. I No. 30/2006, last amended by the federal law BGBl. I No. 44/2025.

The regulation is signed with the names Holzleitner and Wiederkehr.

Updating an Existing Regulation

The amended main regulation is the Tuition Fee Regulation BGBl. II No. 218/2019, which was last amended by regulation BGBl. II No. 76/2026. The current amendment is thus the latest link in a chain of short amending regulations with which the Ministry adjusts the semester specifications of §§ 4a to 4c to current academic operations.

Entry into Force without Transition Period

The new § 7 para. 10 stipulates that §§ 4a to 4c in the version of the Ordinance BGBl. II No. 307/2026 shall enter into force “at the end of the day of publication.” The ordinance does not contain a transitional period or a legislative vacancy period; the new regulation therefore applies immediately from October 22, 2026.

For students and universities, this means a clear chronological assignment: the decisive period is no longer the summer semester 2026, but the winter semester 2026/27, which enters the semester list of tuition fee regulations upon the entry into force of the amendment. Those who wish to know for which semesters the contribution rules of §§ 4a to 4c apply can find the answer starting now in the consolidated version of the Tuition Fee Ordinance BGBl. II No. 218/2019 in the version BGBl. II No. 307/2026.

Source: Federal Law Gazette for the Republic of Austria, Part II, No. 307 of October 22, 2026, Ordinance: Amendment of the Tuition Fee Ordinance (official reference: BGBl. II No. 307/2026).