Alpen-Adria-Universität: Transcending Boundaries

Transcription

1 Alpen-Adria-Universität: Transcending Boundaries Lakeside Labs

2 I. The Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt The Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt (AAU) is a young, vibrant and innovative university, located at the intersection of three diverse cultures. It is the leading institution of academic education in Carinthia, and serves as an important hub for the acquisition, exchange and transfer of knowledge across the entire Alps-Adriatic Region. Since it was founded in 1970, the AAU has become firmly established in the Austrian and international university landscape. The AAU s scientific achievements regularly earn national and international recognition. The projects carried out here serve as important impulse generators for the business location Carinthia. Among its core strengths, the AAU can count the vast diversity of knowledge, range of methodologies, and disciplines, with which researchers are able to tackle research questions. As a result, in addition to producing many notable interdisciplinary efforts, the individual faculties and subject fields are able to present a broad spectrum of outstanding research work. The AAU is located in Austria s southernmost province, in Carinthia. The proximity to Italy and Slovenia results in an atmosphere of intercultural exchange at this intersection between Alpine and Mediterranean culture. Klagenfurt, the capital of the province, is regarded as one of the most important nodal points within the Alps-Adriatic Region, and is especially popular as a university city. Home to around 100,000 inhabitants, the city of Klagenfurt offers a very high quality of life. Numerous hiking and cycling trails traverse a landscape defined by lakes and mountains, and filled with cultural treasures, providing many opportunities for extensive exploration beyond daily university life. The Adriatic coast can easily be reached by car (the journey time is around 2 hours). There are literally no limits to the leisure time possibilities, both during the winter and the summer. Klagenfurt is at the centre of a highly diverse European Central Region: The cities of Ljubljana, Graz, Udine, Salzburg, Trieste, Venice, Vienna, and Munich all lie within a radius of 130 to 350 kilometres (by road).

3 More than 10,000 students attend the AAU in Klagenfurt for the purpose of study and research, including around 1,500 students from abroad. Approximately 1,300 members of staff produce outstanding achievements in teaching, research, and administration. There are four faculties at the AAU: the Faculty of Humanities, the Faculty of Management and Economics, the Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies, and the Faculty of Technical Sciences. The School of Education was developed to pool the existing expertise in teacher training and specialized subject didactics. The AAU is a campus university that can offer short distances and modern infrastructure. The campus is home to a wealth of cultural activities. Numerous events, not only restricted to the areas of studying and research, add variety to life at the university. The campus, with its park-like surroundings, allows easy access to the city centre and is located in the immediate vicinity of the Lakeside Science & Technology Park and the extensive recreation area that hugs the eastern shore of Lake Wörthersee. The AAU has set itself the strategic aim to produce exceptional achievements in the international context. This requires both excellent research and the appropriate framework conditions. One of the distinguishing features of the AAU is its manageable size, which is coupled with a wide and diverse range of subjects. This provides ideal conditions for interdisciplinary research, as well as outstanding subject-specific research efforts. A recent strategy process at the Alpen-Adria-Universität resulted in the definition of seven interdisciplinary thematic areas. These areas each have a broad base in terms of content, and they represent the spheres in which the university s academics conduct internationally recognised research: Educational Research Energy Management & Technology Human Centered Computing & Design Sustainability Self-Organizing Systems Entrepreneurship Visual Culture

4 II. The Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies The Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies was established at Klagenfurt University in the year It emerged from an inter-university research institute and today it operates from premises in three locations: Klagenfurt, Vienna and Graz. The faculty maintains numerous relationships of cooperation with other Austrian universities and is linked to a large number of international partner organisations. One of the faculty s notable strengths lies in the area of largely third-party funded research. This results in cooperative working methods. In the sphere of universitylevel continuing education, the faculty can point to a series of university certificate programmes. In the field of teaching, the Master s degree programme in Social and Human Ecology is part of the current teaching offer. The operational units in this faculty contribute to the teaching programmes of other areas within the university, for example in the elective programme Women s Studies / Gender Studies. The faculty runs seven doctoral schools: the Doctoral School for Social Ecology, the Doctoral School for Organisational Development, the Doctoral School for Palliative Care and Organisational Ethics, the Doctoral School for Science and Higher Education in the Knowledge Society, the Doctoral School for Lifelong Learning, the Doctoral School for Intervention Research, and the Doctoral School for Science and Technology Studies. Additional Master s degree programmes are currently under development. The faculty is made up of six institutes and two centres: Intervention Research and Cultural Sustainability (Klagenfurt and Vienna) Organisational Development and Group Dynamics (Klagenfurt and Vienna) Palliative Care and Organisational Ethics (Vienna) Social Ecology (Vienna) Science, Technology and Society Studies (Klagenfurt and Graz) Science Communication and Higher Education Research (Vienna) Centre for Women s and Gender Studies (Klagenfurt) Centre for Peace Research and Peace Education (Klagenfurt) The reference point that the various topics represented in the individual units have in common is that they all deal with public goods : education, peace, gender equality, health, space, technology, environment, science. From a methodological perspective, too, the units represent shared principles: Problem focus: the research projects emanate from selected social problem areas; Reflexivity: the social, historical, anthropological, cultural, and spatial contexts of the respective issue take centre stage; Interdisciplinarity: the interdisciplinary composition of the individual teams is significant, producing an intensive and reflective communication culture; Transdisciplinarity: cooperation with individuals and organisations that are directly involved in the particular problem area represents a basic methodological principle; Reference to the organisation: the learning in and of organisations is often at the forefront during the search for solutions in particular problem areas.

5 III. The Faculty of Humanities The Faculty of Humanities at the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt was formally established in 1993 (with some departments dating back to 1970). It has since expanded, and is very well established and connected in the international arena. The faculty is comprised of 11 departments and institutes: Department of English and American Studies Department of Media and Communications Institute for Cultural Sciences, Literature and Musicology Institute of Educational Sciences and Research Institute of German Studies Institute of History Institute of Linguistics and Computational Linguistics Institute of Philosophy Institute of Psychology Institute of Romance Studies Institute of Slavonic Studies The Faculty of Humanities has been able to distinguish itself with the diversity of its discipline-specific and transdisciplinary research activities. It encompasses a broad spectrum of the basic human sciences and promotes multilingualism and intercultural education. The faculty has always regarded the heterogeneity of subjects as an opportunity to absorb new impulses and to tackle these collaboratively, transcending the boundaries of the sciences. The transdisciplinary interests and projects of the faculty are expressed in joint research and teaching activities. One such project is the establishment of the transdisciplinary research cluster Visual Culture. The faculty strongly supports the ongoing lively scientific exchange within the Alps- Adriatic Region. For example, the Master s degree programme German Studies in an Intercultural Context is a double degree programme offered in collaboration with the University of Udine. Taught entirely in English, the new interfaculty Master s degree programme Media and Convergence Management was first introduced in the winter semester of 2013/14. The Faculty of Humanities stands for modern, research- and practice-oriented teaching in the following areas:

6 Fields of study (effective summer semester 2013) Total number of students Applied Cultural Studies (Bachelor) 296 Applied Cultural Studies (Master) 72 Applied Musicology (Bachelor) discontinued 14 Applied Musicology (Master) discontinued 14 English and American Studies (Bachelor) 229 English and American Studies (Master) 32 Educational Science (Bachelor) 832 Adult and Vocational Education (Master) 39 School Education (Master) 45 Social and Integrative Teaching (Master) 110 German Studies (Bachelor) 227 German Studies (Master) 33 German Studies in an Intercultural Context (double 2 degree programme with Udine University) History (Bachelor) 185 History (Master) 19 Media and Communication Science (Bachelor) 320 Media, Communication and Culture (Master) 40 Philosophy (Bachelor) 158 Philosophy (Master) 8 Psychology (Bachelor) 589 Psychology (Master) 77 Romance Studies (Bachelor) 152 Romance Studies (Master) 23 Slavonic Studies (Bachelor) 185 Slavonic Studies (Master) 12 Teaching Subject German 125 Teaching Subject English 188 Teaching Subject French 17 Teaching Subject History, Social Studies and Political 91 Education Teaching Subject Italian 59 Teaching Subject Slovenian 13 Discontinued Diploma Degree Programmes (aggregated)* 904 Doctoral Degree Programme Philosophy (Humanities) 617 *) The low numbers in some of the Master s degree programmes are due to the high number of students still actively studying in the old diploma degree programmes.

7 IV. The Faculty of Technical Sciences The Faculty of Technical Sciences at the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt was founded in the year Since then, it has grown considerably, and has become very well established. The faculty is comprised of seven institutes: Institute of Applied Informatics Institute of Informatics Systems Institute of Information Technology Institute of Smart System Technologies Institute of Mathematics Institute of Statistics Institute of Networked and Embedded Systems The Faculty of Technical Sciences represents modern, research- and practice-oriented teaching in the following areas: Fields of study Total number of students (as at winter semester 2013/14) Information Technology (Bachelor) 92 Information Technology (Master) 83 Technical Mathematics (Bachelor 112 Technical Mathematics (Master) 21 Informatics (Bachelor) 104 Informatics (Master) 90 Applied Informatics (Bachelor) 213 Applied Informatics (Master) 13 Teaching Subject Mathematics 203 Teaching Subject Informatics and Informatics Management 87 Doctoral Degree Programme Science and Technology 125 PhD Information Technology 14 The supervision conditions at the Faculty of Technical Sciences which are excellent compared to other universities facilitate a continuous and constructive exchange between teaching staff and students. The non-university research institute Lakeside Labs GmbH focuses on the issue of self-organizing networked systems within the sphere of information and communication technology, and works in close cooperation with the corresponding AAU institutes. Together with four other European universities, the AAU has co-founded the Doctoral School Interactive und Cognitive Environments (ICE). The ICE Doctoral School is financed by the European Erasmus Mundus Excellence Programme and is the only doctoral programme in the ICT area to have been awarded funding. It is jointly run by the University of Genoa (coordinator), Queen Mary University London, Klagenfurt University, TU Eindhoven, and UPC Barcelona. Over the course of the 3-year programme, each doctoral candidate conducts research and studies at two universities. The AAU is currently the only Austrian university to take part in the European Erasmus Mundus Programme at the doctoral level.

8 V. The Faculty of Management and Economics The Faculty of Management and Economics has always considered itself an interdisciplinary faculty. In line with the faculty s guiding principle, the combination of Business Studies, Geography and Regional Studies, Law, Sociology and Economics provides the opportunity of thinking beyond business and borders. Research and teaching at the faculty focus primarily on examining the entrepreneurial issues that arise during the course of the company life cycle (start-up, development and growth, organisation, leadership, succession, and the restructuring of businesses), the analysis of micro- and macro-economic, legal, spatial and social structures and processes, as well as innovations in the sphere of business and of society, linked to the consideration of regional development and of aspects relating to energy and the environment. The Faculty of Management and Economics is comprised of nine departments: Department of Financial Management Department of Geography and Regional Studies Department of Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship Department of Public, Nonprofit and Health Management Department of Production Management and Business Logistics Department of Law Department of Sociology Department of Business Management Department of Economics The faculty s achievements in research and teaching contribute significantly to the university s overall objectives. 22 per cent of all AAU publications released during the past calendar year were produced by academics at the Faculty of Management and Economics. 10,700 regular students were enrolled at the university in the winter semester of 2013/14, and 34 % of these were hosted at this faculty. The Faculty of Management and Economics offers an attractive range of studies comprised of 13 degree programmes, all of which are in equal parts theory- and application-oriented: Bachelor s degree programme in Business Administration, with branches of study in Financial Management & Controlling, Market Oriented Management, and Product Life Cycle Management. The new branch of study International Business Administration was introduced in the winter semester of 2014/15 Master s degree programme in Business Administration, with branches of study in General Management, Energy and Environmental Management and Entrepreneurship Bachelor s degree programme in Geography Master s degree programme in Geography and Regional Studies: Geographical Regional Science Bachelor s degree programme in Information Management (jointly with the Faculty of Technical Sciences) Master s degree programme in Information Management (jointly with the Faculty of Technical Sciences)

9 Bachelor s degree programme in Business and Law Master s degree programme in Business and Law with branches of study in Finance, Taxation and Tax Consultancy, Accounting and Auditing as well as Public Management and Law of Public Administration English language Master s degree programme in International Management English language Master s degree programme in Media and Convergence Management (jointly with the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Technical Sciences) Teacher Training programme for Geography and Economics Doctoral Studies in Social Sciences and Economics (in cooperation with universities in the Alps-Adriatic Region; CESEENET) Doctoral Studies in Natural Sciences (for students of Geography and Regional Studies) In addition, the faculty provides Business Administration teaching content for the Bachelor s degree Information Technology, branch of study Engineering, which is run by the Faculty of Technical Sciences. All AAU students can avail themselves of the faculty s basic training course in the area of Entrepreneurship (build! Entrepreneurship certificate). The high quality of studying and teaching is confirmed by excellent results of rankings (e.g. CHE Ranking Geography 2012, as well as Business Administration and Information Management 2014, with particular emphasis on the international orientation). Academics working at the faculty regularly achieve top positions in rankings based on publications (e.g. Ranking by the Handelsblatt). It is the primary objective of the Faculty of Management and Economics to develop the existing strengths in collaborative research and teaching further, especially at the intersections of Business & Law, Economic, Societal & Spatial Development as well as Business & Technology. At the same time, the faculty aims to expand its work on the interdisciplinary research areas of Entrepreneurship and Energy Management and Technology. The faculty s image brochure is available here: