The VWU preparatory course in Vienna

VWU, the Vorstudienlehrgang der Wiener Universitäten, is Vienna's university preparatory course. You don't apply to it directly. You apply to a university, for the programme you want, and if your German isn't strong enough or your school didn't cover everything the programme requires, the university admits you to the preparatory course and prescribes supplementary exams, Ergänzungsprüfungen. You sit them at the VWU, and once you've passed them all, you're enrolled as a regular student.^1·2

Not everyone needs the preparatory course. With a German C1 certificate you aren't assigned a German exam, and if your school also covered everything the programme requires, the university admits you straight away. You can sit your assigned exams without attending the course at all: the VWU allows this explicitly. Whether that still counts toward a residence permit renewal is something to ask the secretariat before you skip the course.^1·3

Not everyone studies at the VWU itself, either. If German is your only assigned exam, you learn it with one of the VWU's three partner institutions, at three times the price of a VWU semester. If you're assigned other subjects alongside German, the VWU applies the same rule it uses for selective admission: only the top scorers on onSET, the German placement test, get a place; everyone else learns German with a partner. More on this below, in "Where you'll learn German."^1·4

You can't find out which exams you'll be assigned in advance: the university decides only after it has checked your documents. That's why it pays to apply early in the window. The sooner the decision arrives, the sooner you know what to prepare for, and the sooner you can register with the VWU, where, if places run short, your registration date matters.^4·5

Before you apply: German A2 and documents

For a German-taught programme, Uni Wien only accepts your application with a German certificate of at least A2. If you don't have one, start with the language: you can't submit documents without A2.³

Uni Wien asks for every page of your school-leaving certificate and the Stundentafel, the list of subjects with their hours. Both need whatever certification your issuing country requires, and if the document isn't in German or English, a sworn translation too. You submit the application only once the whole set is complete. For Russian documents, Uni Wien also requires an apostille, the stamp a state uses to certify its own document for use abroad. Since 2026, TU Wien and Uni Graz also require Russian school graduates to submit their Unified State Exam (EGE) results. Where an apostille is enough and where you need full legalisation, how to get the translation done, and how each university wants it submitted, is covered in the article on documents.^6–9

Attach anything that could get an exam waived right away, such as transcripts and certificates. Once you're admitted to the preparatory course, an assigned exam can no longer be removed.²

The path, step by step

1. Apply on time. Non-EU citizens apply to Uni Wien for the 2026/27 winter semester from 22 June to 3 August 2026 (that window has already passed), and for summer 2027 from 16 November 2026 to 7 January 2027. There's no extra window. Programmes with selective admission accept applications once a year, in spring. In 2026 that was 2 March to 4 May. Other universities set their own deadlines.¹⁰
2. The admission decision, Zulassungsbescheid. This is where your list of exams appears. Two applicants to the same programme can get different lists.⁵
3. Residence permit and housing. With the university's admission decision in hand, you apply for a student residence permit; the preparatory course is named in the law itself as valid grounds for one. The decision on a residence permit can take up to 90 days, so apply at least three months before you plan to enter the country. The application needs a housing contract for at least three months, so start looking right away. Documents, deadlines and where to apply are covered in the article on arriving.^11·12
4. Register with the VWU. You can't register without an admission decision naming your assigned exams. In 2026, online registration for the winter semester ran from 31 July to 13 August, and onSET, the German placement test, was written from 6 to 17 August, in person in Vienna only. The VWU sets the test date, it can't be moved, and anyone who misses it loses their place. Meet those deadlines and your place is guaranteed, either at the VWU itself or with a partner, and you were told which on 21 August. You can still register later, just without that guarantee. You can register with just the admission decision, but for onSET you need to already be in Vienna. You enter on a D visa, and you can only apply for one once your residence permit is approved. The residence permit decision can take up to 90 days, and from the last day to apply to Uni Wien, 3 August, to the last day of onSET is only two weeks. So apply to the university in the first days of the window, and apply for the residence permit right after the admission decision. If you miss onSET, there's still late registration: anyone who got their D visa or admission decision on or after 30 August can register after 3 September too, again without a guarantee. All the dates in this step are for winter semester 2026; dates for the next intake are published by the VWU on the same registration page.^{4·10·12·13}
5. onSET, the German placement test. You take it on a computer at the VWU, and it decides which level of the German course you start at and, if places are tight, whether you get into the VWU itself. There's no pass mark for onSET. Anyone registering with the VWU for the first time for German alongside other subjects, and anyone assigned English, also sits an English test.^1·4·14
6. Courses and exams. There are at least six sittings a year. To start at university in October, your last exam has to be passed by the September sitting at the latest; for March, by the March sitting. Passing in the November or April sitting doesn't get you into university that same semester.^10·15
7. Renewing the residence permit. It's renewed only if you can show academic progress, and within two years at the latest you have to show admission to a regular degree programme. Renewal is handled by MA 35, Vienna's immigration authority. As a benchmark it cites 16 ECTS or 8 teaching hours a week over the past academic year, and you can apply for renewal no earlier than three months before your card expires. What documents you need and how progress is proven at the VWU and at partner institutions is covered in the article on renewal.^11·12·16
8. Enrolment. Some programmes run their own selection after the VWU too, for example the computer science entrance test.

Which exams exist at the VWU

You get five attempts at each part of an exam, and you're only admitted to the oral part once you've passed the written one.^1·17–21

Will you be assigned German

Regular enrolment requires German at C1. Uni Wien accepts C1 certificates from its own list: ÖSD, Goethe, telc, TestDaF, DSH, DSD, ÖIF, and the exam of its own language centre. onSET is not on that list. Without one of those certificates you'll be assigned the EPD, the Ergänzungsprüfung Deutsch. TU Wien, for instance, states outright in its decision for applicants at A2 that it will enrol you as a regular student once you've passed the EPD.^3·22·23

Who is assigned the other subjects

There's no clear-cut rule here. The university compares what you covered at school against what the programme requires: a subject you studied thoroughly enough won't make the list, and one your school curriculum didn't cover will. The same certificate produces different lists for an economics programme and a technical one. It's judged purely on the documents you attach, and the Stundentafel with its hours shows the university how much mathematics or physics you actually had.^1·6

Where you'll learn German

A semester of the German course at the VWU itself costs €612; at any of its three partners, €1,890. You don't get to choose:⁴

• Only German is assigned: you study with a partner.^4·24
• German and other subjects: you register with the VWU. Combined courses of German with other subjects require advanced German, and take only the best scorers on onSET, the way selective admission does. Everyone else learns German with a partner. Places are also handed out by the date you registered with a complete set of documents.^1·4·24
• German isn't assigned: you study at the VWU.⁴

A partner teaches German, and you can sit the exam for any other subject without attending its course at all. Citizens of several dozen countries and refugees have their own rules, but Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan aren't on those lists. You can check your own country in the article on the VWU and its partners, and what a year costs in each case is worked out in the article on costs.^1·24

Four semesters for everything

You can attend courses for four semesters. A fifth is granted only on application, and only if valid reasons kept you from finishing. The limit is shared across all your subjects, and Uni Wien caps the exams themselves with the same four semesters. Passing an exam without the course frees up class hours, but not semesters. How many attempts you have left and what needs retaking is covered in the article on retakes.^1·2

While you're waiting for the admission decision

You can see the level of the exams from past papers, and there's nothing stopping you from starting to prepare before the decision arrives. Solve one full paper against the clock: for maths, past EPM exams; for German, our EPD practice exams. Both are open without registration, with a worked solution for every task.

More detail on each individual exam:

• German: the EPD's format and thresholds, the course's levels, and onSET.
• English: how the EPE works.
• Mathematics: what's covered and how much of it.
• Physics: the oral exam and bonus credits.
• Graz instead of Vienna: how the VGUH differs.

Sources

· 24 checked 25.09.2026

1. 1FAQ — Vorstudienlehrgang der Wiener Universitäten · checked 20.09.2026
2. 2Zulassung zum VWU (BA) — Universität Wien · checked 25.09.2026
3. 3Nachweis der Deutschkenntnisse — Universität Wien · checked 20.09.2026
4. 4Erstanmeldung — Vorstudienlehrgang der Wiener Universitäten · checked 20.09.2026
5. 5Zulassung ohne OSA / nicht-EU-EWR mit Deutsch (FAQ) — Universität Wien · checked 25.09.2026
6. 6Infos Drittstaaten — Universität Wien · checked 25.09.2026
7. 7Admission with an international school-leaving certificate — TU Wien · checked 25.09.2026
8. 8Bewerbung Bachelor-/Diplomstudium — Universität Graz · checked 25.09.2026
9. 9Beglaubigung — Universität Wien · checked 25.09.2026
10. 10Antrags- und Zulassungsfristen — Universität Wien · checked 25.09.2026
11. 11Niederlassungs- und Aufenthaltsgesetz, § 64 — Studierende · checked 23.09.2026
12. 12Aufenthaltsbewilligung Student (kein Mobilitätsprogramm) — OeAD · checked 20.09.2026
13. 13Wie stelle ich einen Antrag? — Österreichische Botschaft Moskau · checked 25.09.2026
14. 14Teilnehmende — onSET Online-Spracheinstufungstest · checked 20.09.2026
15. 15Ergänzungsprüfungen — Vorstudienlehrgang der Wiener Universitäten · checked 23.09.2026
16. 16Aufenthaltsbewilligung Student — Stadt Wien, MA 35 · checked 23.09.2026
17. 17Modell Ergänzungsprüfung Deutsch (gültig ab Juni 2026) · checked 23.09.2026
18. 18Modell Ergänzungsprüfung Englisch, Stand September 2024 (VWU) · checked 22.09.2026
19. 19Unterrichtsorganisation und Prüfungsregelung in Mathematik (WS 2026) · dated 13.09.2026, checked 18.09.2026
20. 20Informationsblatt Physikkurs — Vorstudienlehrgang der Wiener Universitäten · checked 20.09.2026
21. 21Statut des Vorstudienlehrganges der Wiener Universitäten (VWU) · checked 25.09.2026
22. 22Anerkannte Deutschnachweise C1 — Universität Wien · checked 20.09.2026
23. 23Competence in German — TU Wien · checked 20.09.2026
24. 24Deutschkurse für den VWU — Sprachenzentrum der Universität Wien · checked 20.09.2026