In 2014, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy (bmwfw) commissioned 3s to evaluate the effects of paragraph § 124b UG (University Act) 2002.
In 2005, this paragraph enabled Austrian Universities to establish entrance restrictions for assigned study programs that were in high demand by German students due to the German Numerus clausus. 3s had already conducted an evaluation study on this subject matter in 2008/2009. Following this study, an observation period running from 2009 to 2014 was evaluated and the findings compared with those of the first evaluation study.
The evaluation consisted of:
- an analysis of study programmes that are affected by §124b UG 2002;
- a description and typology of the different kinds of entrance restrictions / selection methods utilised;
- an analysis of data on the selection procedures (changes, effects, number of participants, number of successful participants, socio-demographic data of participants);
- an extensive web-based survey of individuals that had participated in selection procedures over the previous 2 years.