Study of Psychotherapy - Universities Do Not Expect Lower Costs

According to the plan of the outgoing black-green government, the new training is not only intended to ensure more academic quality. The currently up to 50,000 Euro expensive training should also become cheaper. However, this is "not particularly realistic", says Wolfgang Fleischhacker, who is responsible for the topic in the University Conference (uniko), to APA.

"Noble Intention"

It is a "noble intention" of Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) to make the training more affordable through the reform and thus increase the number of psychotherapists. "But the more expensive parts of the training will still have to be paid for by oneself", expects Fleischhacker, Rector of the Medical University of Innsbruck and himself a psychiatrist and psychotherapist.

The new structure provides that after a suitable bachelor's degree, a two-year psychotherapy master's degree is added at universities or universities of applied sciences. The third part of the training is a postgraduate specialist training at psychotherapeutic specialist societies, during which one can already work therapeutically under supervision. According to the law, the universities can offer a psychotherapy bachelor's degree themselves, but the enthusiasm for this among the universities is "not great, to put it mildly", says Fleischhacker. Currently, psychotherapy training consists of a two-year propaedeutic and - depending on the subject - a three to six-year specialisation.

Although the universities will teach a lot in small groups according to the plan, which is personnel-intensive and will also require additional money. However, the third phase of the new training with theory, practical instruction, supervision and self-experience should be exclusively in the hands of the specialist societies, emphasizes Fleischhacker. And costs would still be incurred for this.

Plan "Ambitious"

How the Master's program should look in terms of content and how access to the new course of study should be designed is currently being worked on jointly by the universities. According to Fleischhacker, the plan by the Black-Green coalition to start the new training in the academic year 2026/27 is "ambitious".

The idea of the Ministry of Science to advertise the 500 places has been abandoned. Instead, the universities are likely to join forces with their respective expertise for the new training in three regional alliances (Vienna, South, West/Centre). Their study plans should be oriented towards a framework curriculum, which uniko is currently working on together with the Austrian Society for Psychology.

They are also working together on a uniform admission procedure for all of Austria, similar to the medical admission test. This should ensure that the freshmen, despite the different basic training - a degree in medicine, psychology, health and nursing professions is possible as a prerequisite - bring the same prior knowledge in areas such as developmental psychology or neurobiology.

Austrian Quota?

Also up for debate is an Austrian quota for the new offer, as with medical studies. The argument would be the same: Because the study would be attractive to students from German-speaking countries, at least some of them would leave Austria after their training, without a quota the supply of psychotherapists in the country would be endangered. After all, according to Fleischhacker, the 500 planned study places are "certainly not enough". The Austrian Federal Association for Psychotherapy (ÖBVP) estimates a need for 1,500 places per year in order to reach the required 1,000 graduates after dropouts.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.