Comparing the number of &quot;graduates&quot; is pretty much pointless. We always had a low number of graduates in Austria, partly because of the apprenticeship system, but also because many schools just didn&#x27;t award degrees.<p>For example, if you become a Kindergarten teacher, or a primary school teacher, or a nurse, you just dodn&#x27;t receive an academic degree.<p>A few years ago this started to change. Most schools were formally changed to &quot;Hochschulen&quot; and now award degrees. On paper, this measure vastly increases the number of academics in Austria. But in practice, not much has changed.<p>Such circumstances should be taken into account when comparing the percentage of graduates across countries. The raw numbers don&#x27;t tell the whole story.