[Status report on gerontological master programmes--Bologna Process, profile and peculiarities]

The article provides an overview of the development stage of gerontological university master programmes, under consideration of the ongoing Bologna Process. Educational structures in Germany, the universities of which were the first to offer gerontological master programmes, developed differently than those in Austria and Switzerland, where age-and-ageing-related disciplines were mostly offered by (pedagogic and parochial) academies. The article first focuses on an analysis of the existing and planned gerontological study courses, in all three countries, based on the respective profiles, emphases and specialisations in the gerontological master programmes. Special attention is also given to the question, whether the demands, placed on gerontological university studies by demographic changes and age-related structural changes, are sufficiently met, as well as to the compatibility of the gerontological master programmes with basic socio-scientific university training, and their professional applicability. It seems evident that the efforts made by universities and by technical colleges to teach with a strong focus on existing practice, have engendered a great variety of adult-education concepts. The future will show which of these educational approaches will stand their ground, from the point of view of the students, as well as on the side of the labour market.