The University of Klagenfurt (german: Universität Klagenfurt or ''Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt'', AAU) is a federal Austrian research university and the largest research and higher education institution in the state of

Carinthia Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German language, German. Its regional dialects belong to t ...

. It has its campus in Klagenfurt. Originally founded in 1970 and relaunched in 1993, the university today holds faculties of arts, humanities & education, management, economics & law, social sciences, and

technical sciences Technical may refer to: * Technical (vehicle), an improvised fighting vehicle * Technical analysis, a discipline for forecasting the future direction of prices through the study of past market data * Technical drawing, showing how something is ...

. It is listed in the

ARWU The ''Academic Ranking of World Universities'' (''ARWU''), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, is one of the annual publications of world university rankings. The league table was originally compiled and issued by Shanghai Jiao Tong University ...

, THE, and QS global rankings and held rank 48 worldwide in THE's ''Young University Rankings'' 2021. The university has defined three research priority areas, ''Social Ecology'' (until 2018, transferred to BOKU Vienna), ''Networked and Autonomous Systems'', and ''Multiple Perspectives in Optimization'', with the former spawning three ERC Grants and the latter a ''doc.funds'' programme of the

Austrian Science Fund The Austrian Science Fund (german: Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung, FWF) is the most important Austrian funding organization for basic research. The FWF supports research in science, engineering, and the humanities through a ...

. It has launched a new initiative, ''Humans in the Digital Age'' (HDA), in 2019, hosting an ERC Grant on cybersecurity. It also holds a number of central facilities such as the

Robert Musil Robert Musil (; 6 November 1880 – 15 April 1942) was an Austrian philosophical writer. His unfinished novel, ''The Man Without Qualities'' (german: link=no, Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften), is generally considered to be one of the most important ...

Institute (co-organizer of the Bachmann Prize), the

Karl Popper Sir Karl Raimund Popper (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian-British philosopher, academic and social commentator. One of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science, Popper is known for his rejection of the cl ...

Kolleg (an Institute for Advanced Study), the University Cultural Centre (UNIKUM), the ''build!'' Gründerzentrum (a

start-up A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

facilitation center), the University Sports Centre (USI), and the Klagenfurt University Library.

Oliver Vitouch Oliver Vitouch (born 4 April 1971 in Vienna) is an Austrian psychologist and cognitive scientist. He has served as Rector of the University of Klagenfurt since 2012, and as Vice-President and President, respectively, of Universities Austria si ...

, a cognitive psychologist and former faculty member of the University of Vienna and the

Max Planck Institute for Human Development The Max-Planck-Institute for Human Development (Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung) is an internationally renowned social science research organization. Located in Berlin, it was initiated in 1961 and officially began operations in 1963 ...

in Berlin, is the university's Vice-Chancellor. Martin Hitz chairs the Academic Senate; Werner Wutscher, former Secretary General of the European Forum Alpbach, is chairman of the University Council. The University of Klagenfurt is situated 30 km from the Slovenian and 60 km from the Italian border and supports bi- and multilingualism, especially in the context of the Slovenian minority in Carinthia. Together with the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (Italy) and the University of Fribourg (

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

), it is among the three

south South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

ernmost universities in the German-speaking world.

History

With the Protestant ''collegium sapientiae et pietatis'' founded in 1552, Klagenfurt hosted one of the oldest

gymnasiums A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational ins ...

in Austria (today's Europagymnasium), directed by Hieronymus Megiser from 1593 to 1601, but had no ancient university tradition. In 1970, the Austrian parliament passed a federal law allowing the establishment of an Educational Science College in Klagenfurt. The first doctoral degree was conferred in 1972. In 1975, new laws on higher education came into force, with the name of the college being changed into ''Universität für Bildungswissenschaften'' (University of Educational Sciences). In 1993, a fundamental relaunch took place: The institution's name was changed to ''Universität Klagenfurt'' (University of Klagenfurt), and a Faculty of Humanities and a (new) Faculty of Economics, Business Administration, and Informatics were inaugurated. The Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies was inaugurated in 2004. The university adopted the official cognomen ''Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt'' in 2004 (with its legal name still being ''Universität Klagenfurt''). It was extended with a fourth, technical sciences faculty in 2007 (with a focus on

Informatics Informatics is the study of computational systems, especially those for data storage and retrieval. According to ACM ''Europe and'' ''Informatics Europe'', informatics is synonymous with computer science and computing as a profession, in which ...

, Information Technology, and Networked & Autonomous Systems), engaging in research operations in collaboration with the ''Lakeside Science & Technology Park''. In 2012, the number of students passed the 10,000 mark. On occasion of the institution's 40th anniversary, a Boat Race was held on Lake Wörth in 2010. Klagenfurt's

Eight 8 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 8 or eight may also refer to: Years * AD 8, the eighth year of the AD era * 8 BC, the eighth year before the AD era Art *The Eight (Ashcan School), a group of twentieth century painters associated with the As ...

won against the University of Vienna by a boat length on a sprinting distance from the rowing clubs to Maria Loretto castle. In 2015, the university established commencement speeches at its graduation ceremonies. Among the speakers so far are

Sabine Herlitschka Sabine Herlitschka is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Infineon Technologies Austria, a group subsidiary of Infineon Technologies AG. Early life and education Sabine Herlitschka was born on February 1, 1966 in Pfarrkirchen, Germany, and ...

, Josef Winkler,

August-Wilhelm Scheer August-Wilhelm Scheer (born July 27, 1941) is a German Professor of business administration and business information at Saarland University, and founder and director of IDS Scheer Aktiengesellschaft, AG, a major information technology, IT service a ...

, Johanna Rachinger, and Josef Aschbacher.

Presidents of Austria President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese fu ...

Heinz Fischer (formerly) and Alexander Van der Bellen (incumbent) are recurrent guests at

doctoral A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...

graduations

sub auspiciis Praesidentis (Latin for ''Doctoral graduation under the auspices of the Federal President''), often abbreviated as doctoral graduation (German: ), is a special form of doctoral graduation and the highest possible distinction for academic achievements for a ...

. In 2020, the university celebrated its institutional 50 year jubilee. This included a lecture series together with the Austrian Academy of Sciences, ''Utopia! Is the world out of joint? Contributions to the art of

Enlightenment Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to: Age of Enlightenment * Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...

'' opened by Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger and the bestowal of an honorary doctorate to Rae Langton. Several further jubilee events were virtualized or postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 22 November 2020 the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation showed the TV documentary ''Humans in the Digital Age: University of Klagenfurt—50th Anniversary''. The jubilee exhibition ''ARTEFICIA'' was postponed to autumn 2021. It shows unique exhibits from honorary doctors Manfred Bockelmann, Michael Guttenbrunner,

Maja Haderlap Maja Haderlap (born 8 March 1961 in Eisenkappel-Vellach ( sl, Železna Kapla-Bela, Carinthia) is a bilingual Slovenian- German Austrian writer, best known for her multiple-award-winning novel, Angel of Oblivion, about the Slovene ethnic minorit ...

, Peter Handke, Maria Lassnig, Valentin Oman,

Wolfgang Puschnig Wolfgang Puschnig (born 21 May 1956 in Klagenfurt, Austria) is an Austrian jazz musician (saxophone, flute, bass clarinet) and composer. Biography After his studies of saxophone and flute at the Vienna Conservatory Puschnig was the founding ...

, Peter Turrini, and Josef Winkler. Technological developments of the University of Klagenfurt—leading contributions to the navigation system of the robotic helicopter '' Ingenuity''—are part of NASAs Mars 2020 mission ( Mars landing on 18 February 2021, maiden flight of the helicopter on 19 April 2021).

Campus

With its suburban setting, the university campus is in walking distance of both the renaissance-dominated historic city centre of Klagenfurt (capital of the state of

) and the east bay of the Wörthersee, a renowned Austrian summer resort. Also hiking, climbing and skiing possibilities in the Austrian Alps are nearby. Together with the adjacent ''Lakeside Science & Technology Park'', a 60 acres start-up and spin-off park, the university campus forms the so-called ''Lakeside District''. The Park hosts companies such as ASFINAG,

CISC Semiconductor CISC Semiconductor GmbH defines itself as “a design and consulting service company for industries developing embedded microelectronic systems with extremely short Time-To-Market cycles.” The company started in 1999, working in the semiconduc ...

, Dynatrace, Fraunhofer Austria, Infineon,

Joanneum Research Joanneum Research Forschungsgesellschaft mbH is one of the largest non-academic research institutes in Austria. Besides its headquarters in Graz it is also based in Weiz, Hartberg, Niklasdorf, Klagenfurt and Vienna en, Viennese , iso_c ...

, Kapsch TrafficCom, PharmTElligent, and SKIDATA. From 2016 to 2018, the university's central and north wing (13,000 m²) were fully refurbished with a budget of €26 million. As a result, the university was shortlisted for the ''Prix Versailles – Campuses'' 2019 (under UNESCO patronage), together with buildings of the University of Chicago in Hongkong, Barnard College,

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

SPA Vijayawada The School of Planning and Architecture, Vijayawada (SPA Vijayawada) is a higher education institute in Vijayawada, India, specializing education and research in the field of urban planning and architecture. It is one of the two School of Pla ...

, and

Skoltech The Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, or Skoltech, is a private institute located in Moscow, Russia. Skoltech was established in 2011 as part of a multi-year partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Globall ...

, which won the competition.

Faculties and departments

The following four-faculty structure will apply from 1 January 2023.

Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Education

The Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Education encompasses 11 departments and a faculty centre. Their common ambition is to foster multilingualism and intercultural education, with a special focus on teacher education. * Department of English and American Studies * Department of Cultural Analysis * Department of Educational Sciences and Research * Department of

German Studies German studies is the field of humanities that researches, documents and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies often include classes on German culture, German hi ...

* Department of History * Department of Instructional and School Development * Department of

Philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

* Department of Romance Studies * Department of

Slavonic Studies Slavic (American English) or Slavonic (British English) studies, also known as Slavistics is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic areas, languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or Slavicist was prim ...

* Department of Sports Science *

Institute for Literary Studies * Faculty Centre for Sign Language and Communication of the Hearing Impaired

Faculty of Management, Economics & Law

The Faculty of Management, Economics & Law has a focus on business management while fostering interdisciplinary links with law and economics. Alumni shall be fit for global business careers in the 21st century. * Department of

Business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...

Management * Department of Economics * Department of Financial Management * Department of Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship * Department of

Operations Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...

, Energy, and

Environmental Management Environmental resource management is the management of the interaction and impact of human societies on the environment. It is not, as the phrase might suggest, the management of the environment itself. Environmental resources management aims ...

* Department of Organization, Human Resources, and Service Management * Department of Public,

Nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

, and Health Management * Department of Law

Faculty of Social Sciences

This faculty unites some core disciplines of the Social Sciences, including two of the university's most demanded curricula. Unifying element is the question of good human lives both now and in the future. The faculty maintains a strategic partnership with the Austrian Academy of Sciences. * Department of Geography and Regional Studies * Department of Media and Communications Science * Department of Psychology * Department of Science and Technology Studies * Department of

Science Communication Science communication is the practice of informing, educating, raising awareness of science-related topics, and increasing the sense of wonder about scientific discoveries and arguments. Science communicators and audiences are ambiguously def ...

and Higher Education Research * Department of Sociology

Faculty of Technical Sciences

The Faculty of Technical Sciences is dedicated to research and training in the fields of informatics, information technology and technical mathematics. The faculty was founded in January 2007 and superseded the Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Informatics as well as a newly established Department for information and communication technology. It is organized into nine departments and offers five bachelor's degree programs, four master's degree programs, two teacher training degree programs and two doctoral programs. * Department of Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity * Department of Informatics Education * Department of

Systems * Department of Information Technology * Department of

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

* Department of Mathematics Education * Department of Networked and Embedded Systems * Department of

Smart Systems Smart systems incorporate functions of sensing, actuation, and control in order to describe and analyze a situation, and make decisions based on the available data in a predictive or adaptive manner, thereby performing smart actions. In most cases ...

Technologies * Department of

Statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ''wikt:Statistik#German, Statistik'', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of ...

The research cluster "self-organizing networked systems" closely collaborates with the research institute Lakeside Labs.

University centres

* Centre for

Women's A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

and Gender Studies * Digital Age Research Centre (D^!ARC) *

Kolleg * M/O/T – School of Management, Organizational Development and Technology * School of Education (SoE) * UNIKUM (University Cultural Centre)

Partnerships

As of 2021, the University of Klagenfurt has strategic partnerships with the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Ca' Foscari University of Venice, the Fraunhofer Austria Society, and with

Silicon Austria Labs Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic table ...

(SAL). It offers joint study programs with the Universities of Vienna,

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...

, Udine, La Rochelle, and the Poznań University of Technology. Student mobility partnerships via Erasmus+ and other exchange programs exist with over 250 universities in more than 50 countries worldwide. At the beginning of 2022, the University of Klagenfurt joined YERUN, a European network of young research-intensive universities headquartered in Brussels.

Rankings

The THE World University Rankings 2022 list the University of Klagenfurt in the 351–400 group. This is the 2nd best rank of an Austrian university with a broader spectrum of studies, second only to the University of Vienna (124) and the Medical Universities of Vienna,

, and

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...

and on par with the University of Innsbruck and the Vienna University of Technology. THE uses the ''field-weighted citation impact'', considering the different range of fields between universities. In the ''THE Young University Rankings'' 2022, Klagenfurt holds rank 77 worldwide. From the

STEM Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...

fields, the University of Klagenfurt has technology, engineering, and

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

in its spectrum, but not any classic

sciences Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

life sciences This list of life sciences comprises the branches of science that involve the scientific study of life – such as microorganisms, plants, and animals including human beings. This science is one of the two major branches of natural science, the ...

, which is a handicap in the other large global university rankings. Still, it holds rank 486 in the QS World University Rankings, which aim to rank the 1,400 best universities in the world (out of > 26,000), ahead of the University of Graz (651–700) and the University of Salzburg (751–800). The University of Klagenfurt also ranks in the

Academic Ranking of World Universities The ''Academic Ranking of World Universities'' (''ARWU''), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, is one of the annual publications of world university rankings. The league table was originally compiled and issued by Shanghai Jiao Tong University ...

''(Shanghai Ranking)'' since 2019 (901–1,000), and in U-Multirank since 2017 (honorable mention in 2021). At the ''Global Student Satisfaction Awards 2021'', provided by

Studyportals Studyportals B.V. is an Eindhoven-based company involved in providing an online education choice platform, listing more than 200,000 undergraduate, postgraduate, distance learning, preparation course programmes worldwide, along with other internat ...

, the University of Klagenfurt came off as global winner for the best '' COVID-19 Crisis Management''.

Honorary doctors

* Hans Albert (2007) * Manfred Bockelmann (2013) *

Joseph Buttinger Joseph Buttinger (30 April 1906, Reichersbeuern, Germany – 4 March 1992, Queens, New York) was an Austrian politician and, after his immigration to the United States, an expert on East Asia. He co-founded the American Friends of Vietnam, a Cold ...

(1977) * Karl Corino (2014) *

Peter Eichhorn Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

(2003) * Helmut Engelbrecht (1998) * Hertha Firnberg (1980) *

Adolf Frisé Adolf Frisé (29 May 1910 in Euskirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia − 2 May 2003 in Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main) was a German journalist, author and editor. He was the editor of the literary works of the Austrian philosophical writer Robert Musil. ...

(1982) * Gerda Fröhlich (1995) * Manfred Max Gehring (1992) *

Ernst von Glasersfeld Ernst von Glasersfeld (March 8, 1917, Munich – November 12, 2010, Leverett, Franklin County, Massachusetts) was a philosopher, and emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Georgia, research associate at the Scientific Reasonin ...

(1997) * Georg Gottlob (2016) * Michael Guttenbrunner (1994) *

(2012) * Peter Handke (2002) * Adolf Holl (2000) * Johannes Huber (2017) * Sigmund Kripp (1998) * Rae Langton (2020) * Maria Lassnig (1999 / 2013)Awarded 1999, accepted 2013. *

Florjan Lipuš Florjan Lipuš (born 4 May 1937 in Lobnig above Bad Eisenkappel, Austria) is a Carinthian Slovene writer and translator. Since 1985 he has been a corresponding member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Awards * 2004: Prešeren Awar ...

(2022) * Claudio Magris (1995) * Käte Meyer-Drawe (2022) *

Ewald Nowotny Ewald Nowotny () (born June 28, 1944, in Vienna) is an Austrian economist and social democratic politician and former governor of Austria's central bank Oesterreichische Nationalbank. He was also a member of the European Central Bank’s governing ...

(2008) * Valentin Oman (1995) * Paul Parin (1995) * Wolfgang Petritsch (2013) * Theodor Piffl-Perčević (1977) *

Janko Pleterski Janko Pleterski (1 February 1923 – 8 June 2018) was a Slovenian historian, politician and diplomat. He was born on 1 February 1923 in Maribor, Slovenia, then part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He attended high school in Ljublj ...

(2005) *

(2004) *

Josef Rattner Josef may refer to * Josef (given name) * Josef (surname) * ''Josef'' (film), a 2011 Croatian war film *Musik Josef Musik Josef is a Japanese manufacturer of musical instruments. It was founded by Yukio Nakamura, and is the only company in Japan s ...

(2006) * Siegfried J. Schmidt (2004) * Carola-Bibiane Schönlieb (2022) * Franz Schuh (2022) *

Klaus Tschira Klaus Tschira (7 December 1940 – 31 March 2015) was a German billionaire entrepreneur and the co-founder of the German software company SAP AG. Life After gaining his Diplom in physics and working at IBM, Tschira co-founded the German sof ...

(1995) * Peter Turrini (2010) *

Oswald Wiener Oswald may refer to: People * Oswald (given name), including a list of people with the name *Oswald (surname), including a list of people with the name Fictional characters *Oswald the Reeve, who tells a tale in Geoffrey Chaucer's '' The Canterb ...

(1995) * Horst Wildemann (2003) * Josef Winkler (2009)

References

External links

* {{coord, 46, 36, 59, N, 14, 15, 54, E, region:AT-2_type:edu, display=title Universities and colleges in Austria Educational institutions established in 1970 Buildings and structures in Carinthia (state) Education in Carinthia (state) 1970 establishments in Austria