framework for tertiary education, and the federal Ministry for Science and Research funds and oversees education at the university level. Austria's 23 public and 13 private universities enjoy a high degree of autonomy and offer a full spectrum of degree programs. Established in 1365, the University of Vienna is Austria’s oldest and largest university. As a result of the reforms since the 1960s, the university system has changed from one serving the elite to one serving the masses. The growing number of students at Austrian universities reflects the liberalization of educational policy at secondary and higher levels. Between the 1955–56 and 1991–92 academic years, the number of students enrolled in institutions of higher education increased from about 19,000 to more than 200,000. The number of students beginning university-level education after completing the AHS program also increased and amounted to 85% in 1990, compared with 60% in the mid-1960s. Traditionally, students were free to enroll at any (public) university and in any subject they wished to. It is even possible to enroll in several subject fields concurrently (which is often done by gifted students to signal their abilities to the job market). Recently, restrictions in a number of fields have been introduced. Currently, the affected subjects are: Biology, Human Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Medicine, Pharmacology, Psychology, Journalism and Economic Sciences. The reforms also meant that university education ceased to be a male privilege. Between the 1960–61 and 1991–92 academic years, the proportion of female students enrolling at universities rose from 23 to 44%. Yet, although women account for almost half of the students at university level, only 2% of professors at institutions of higher learning were women in 1990. Despite the increase in the numbers of university students and the greater presence of women, universities remain primarily the domain of middle- and higher-income groups. The proportion of students from working-class backgrounds doubled from 7 to 14%, and the number of these from agricultural backgrounds increased from less than 2% to more than 4% between 1960 and 1990. But children of white-collar workers, civil servants, and the self-employed accounted for more than 80% of enrollments at Austrian institutions of higher education in the early 1990s. The country’s university system was free until 2001; since then studies have been subject to fees (€366 per term for Austrian citizens, about €700 per term for non-Austrians). In 2008, however, the government decided to abolish fees for