Legal stipulations covering postgraduate training in medical specialties are expected to be introduced in the near future. A committee set up by the Austrian Ophthalmological Society is working on a postgraduate training scheme, including clinical training and recommended literature, with the aim of achieving the greatest possible degree of coordination with ophthalmological societies in other German-speaking countries. Surgical training in ophthalmology, and the need to update recommended literature constantly, require special consideration. However, the standard of postgraduate medical training will not depend solely on the provision of a satisfactory legal framework; in ophthalmology it will depend to a large extent on the example set by teachers and their assistants, as well as on the individual efforts of the trainers themselves. A final examination should be introduced, in spite of the objections still being raised in Austria.