For universities around the world it is important to plan their organization of teaching in accordance to the number of students. For the University of Vienna this means to organize teaching for about 12.000 teacher education students enrolled (in total there are 94.000 enrolled students at the University of Vienna). In the teacher education programme at the University of Vienna there are some subjects with an exorbitant high number of students (for example History, Philosophy and Psychology, German, English). This makes planning difficult and the student number development unforeseen. On the other hand, the student as individual also has difficulties in planning and/or finishing his/her studies. Heine et al. (2006) and Heukamp et al. (2009) stress the importance of the individual perspective meaning that to choose the “right” subjects is of great importance for both, the students and the university. Connected to the question why students change subjects and how students motivate their decision, is the slightly better researched question of dropouts. As stated by Sarcletti/Müller (2011), Thaler/Müller (2014) and Unger et al. (2009) dropout rates, but also dropout reasons vary greatly across different academic studies.

Teacher education in Austria has undergone many changes during a short time (see Eder 2014 for a summary about the situation shortly before). Now, at the University of Vienna, the teacher education programmes have been recently (and comparatively late) transformed from a Magister-programme (5,5 years of studies) to the BA/MA-degree system (4/2 years of studies). Still, teacher education for the “Volksschule” (primary school) and “Sekundarstufe” (secondary school) in Austria are offered at two different institutions, the Pädagogische Hochschule and the University, which is an exception compared to other European countries (Bauer/Prenzel 2012).

Another feature that was introduced at the University of Vienna 2014 was the assessment process. In order to enter teacher education, prospective students have to undergo a two-stage process (see Neunteufl/Bugelnig 2016). Firstly, all students interested in studying teacher education have to fulfil the online self-assessment (OSA, open between April and August). You cannot “fail” this assessment, but you will get feedback and more information about the teacher education programme. During this assessment process, data is given by prospective students about their subject interests. At the end of August, all interested students have to attend the entrance examination. Even though there is the possibility of not meeting the requirements for passing this exam, the University of Vienna does not use this pen-and-paper assessment as a means of limiting admission.

In this presentation, we will focus on the question of how teacher students choose their two subjects before and during their studies at the teacher programme at the University of Vienna. Furthermore, the data available on the number of beginner students and graduates will be juxtaposed to the question of subject change during the study process. Also, the dropout rate will be another theme in this research, as high dropout rates (this is the case for many studies at the University of Vienna) make it difficult for the university to plan their teaching, but make it also difficult for the educational system to foresee possible shortages for teachers in specific school subjects. In Austria, a dropout rate of about 20% in teacher education programmes can be assumed.

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