370 REPORT — 1894. 



both the additional length of preparation prescribed and the manner in 

 ■which they are conducted. The earliest date at which a candidate may 

 pass his first rigorosum is at the end of the fourth in place of the 

 second year. The second and thii-d may follow at respective intervals of 

 two months. The Staatspriifung is an examination taken by groups of 

 four students, each group being under examination for two hours ; but in 

 the rigorosa each candidate is under examination for two hours, spending 

 half an hour with each examiner. Both State and university examina- 

 tions are oral, and the latter are said to impose a severe strain on both 

 examiner and candidate. In the latter the examiners are the university 

 professors, while in the State examinations these are variously composed 

 of professors, functionaries of the State, and barristers of good standing. 



By the Law of April -8, 1893, which came into effect in October, the 

 system sketched above underwent certain alterations. A complete 

 separation will be effected between the university examinations or rigorosa 

 and those qualifying for the legal profession and State services, the 

 former no longer serving as a possible substitute for the second and third 

 of the latter. In addition, some slight change has been introduced into 

 the curriculum and examinations imposed upon students designing to 

 enter these. They will have to attend courses and to be examined in — 

 (a) The Science of Administration (Verwaltungslehre), and with special 

 reference to Austrian Law ; (6) Economics, theoretical and practical ; 

 (o) Public Finance, and especially Austrian Finance. In addition they 

 must attend lectures (without subsequent examination) on Comparative 

 and Austrian Statistics. These alterations will leave the number of 

 students in the more elementary subjects unaffected, and, so far from 

 operating in discouragement of economic and political studies, will, it is 

 hoped, lead to their more thorough prosecution, by raising the degree to a 

 more scholarly position. 



The marked recognition of Economics by the State, and the large 

 number of students wliose prospects are involved in its successful study, 

 naturally affect the teaching organisation provided by the universities 

 and other bodies. 



This is fairly uniform throughout Austria, as apart from Hungary, 

 though the extent to which the subject is pursued, and the variety of its 

 forms, depend mainly on the enthusiasm of particular teachers and the 

 greater opportunities offered by particular universities or other institu- 

 tions. At the universities ' the ground plan of work may be described as 

 identical. Economics being taught in the faculty of law. There are 

 certain courses which must be delivered, and at which attendance is 

 obligatory for certain classes of students. These are on National Econoiny, 

 Finance, Statistics, and the Science of Administration (Verwaltungslehre), 

 which includes instruction in practical economics, public health, army, 

 matters of policy, justice, &c. But in addition to these the teachers, whether 

 professors or privat-docents, may, and often do, deliver special courses 

 dealing with more particular subjects. These are not necessarily or 

 usually the same from year to year ; and may be described as instruction 

 of an unusually high order, inasmuch as each teacher is accustomed to 

 select for treatment such branch of science in which his own activities 

 and studies lie. The large ^ voluntary attendance at such lectures is a 



' Vienna — Pra^ fGerman), Prag (Bohemian), Graz, Innsbruck, Krakau (Polish), 

 Lemberg (Polish), Czernovitz. 



2 At Vienna the attendance at special courses varies from 50 to 100. 



