Student social survey

The student social survey has been an online survey among students in Austria that has been taking place repeatedly since the 1970s . It is carried out and evaluated on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) by the HER university research group at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS) in Vienna .

Topics and goals

The aim of the survey is to give an overview of the study and living conditions of different groups of students in Austria, such as: B. First-year students, students in bachelor's / master's or diploma programs, doctoral students, working students, students with children, older students, students with health impairments and foreign students.

The range of topics for the student social survey is therefore broad and diverse. Central topics are:

University entrance and study motives
First-year students: Advice and information before studying
Study situation: satisfaction and difficulties
Study funding
Gainful employment
Housing and finance
international mobility
foreign students in Austria
Students with health impairments / disabilities
PhD students
Students with children

The results are published in the report on the social situation of the students and additional reports. These reports represent an important information base for Austrian and international university policy, as the information collected is not available from other data sources.

Similar surveys are carried out regularly in other European countries. The student social surveys have been analyzed as part of the European project EUROSTUDENT since the 1990s. These international comparative data are used within the framework of the Bologna Process and by international organizations such as the EU and the OECD .

Collection and evaluation methods

The survey is carried out as an online survey using software developed by the IHS with barrier-free access . It is aimed at all students in Austria at public and private universities, universities of applied sciences and universities of teacher education. In the last survey carried out in 2015, more than 47,000 students took part in the survey.

The anonymity of the students participating in the student social survey is guaranteed, among other things, by the fact that the invitation to the survey is issued exclusively by the universities. The names and emails of the respondents therefore remain with the universities and are not transmitted to the IHS or the BMBWF. The universities, on the other hand, do not receive any information about what individual students have replied. The IHS is contractually committed to complying with the relevant data protection regulations (in particular GDPR ([EU] 2016/679), DSG and TKG 2003).

The student social survey, i.e. the actual survey, is only part of the extensive reporting on the social situation of students (most recently in 2015: three core reports, seven additional reports, EUROSTUDENT, materials on the social situation of the BMWFW, collection of infographics on all topics). At least one third of the reporting is based on register data from the university statistics , which are made available by the BMBWF and Statistics Austria . The Austrian microcensuses from Statistics Austria represent a further data basis . On the one hand, these data are used to weight the survey data; On the other hand, evaluations and analyzes are carried out, for example on the development of the number of first-year students and students, the social origin of new-year students and university admission.

Student social survey 2019

The survey of the Student Social Survey 2019 starts at the beginning of May 2019. For the first time, not only regular students but also students in courses (with at least 30 ECTS ) are surveyed.

The invitation to participate in the online survey is sent by email from the respective university. The results of the survey will be published in spring 2020.