WU Wins CEMS School of the Year

With about 26,800 students from Austria and abroad, WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business) is the EU’s largest educational institution for business and economics, business law, and social sciences. WU was recently selected by CEMS students as the CEMS School of the Year. We interviewed representatives of the school to understand what makes this school so successful.
WU Wins CEMS School of the Year - Picture

1. What do you feel were the 3 main reasons CEMS students felt so positively about their experience at WU?

The teaching quality is high, the teachers are very much involved into the community and courses offered are very varied and of practical relevance. Moreover, the relations with CEMS Corporate Partners are very good and there are many company headquarters here in Vienna, especially for the CEE region, therefore students have the opportunity to participate in many career related events which enable them not only to get to know the companies and various industries better, but also to build up an extensive network.

2. What makes studying CEMS at WU unique?

Many students from all over the world choose WU as their home School. This contributes, together with many exchange students coming in each term, to a highly international environment. WU also has a remarkably active CEMS Club. Numerous social, CSR, corporate or alumni events are being organized each week. Apart from attending the events, you can even engage in the organization as an active member of the CCV. CEMS promotes global citizenship and the CEMS spirit is alive here.

3. Why should students choose to study in Austria?

Situated in the heart of Europe, Austria offers great variety concentrated in a small area. Here in Vienna, you can find peace and a unique quality of life, big city flair and a rich culture. Austria combines a long tradition of higher education with state-of-the-art research – it’s higher education institutions have accomplished outstanding achievements on an international level and gained a high reputation.

All in all, Austria offers you a broad spectrum of educational opportunities – not to mention great social security, economic stability and the great hospitality of the Austrians. Austria has a long history as an international leader in the arts and sciences. It is the land which brought the world great composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and innovative thinkers such as Sigmund Freud and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

4. What are some interesting cultural/historical facts about studying there?

Vienna is a city of easy living and affordable tuition -- that makes it one of the world’s best cities for students. Around a quarter of the city’s enrolled students come from abroad, (about 25,000). Quality of life in Austria is regularly rated among the highest anywhere in the world. In fact, Vienna was named the world’s leading city for quality of life in Mercer's 2015 Quality of Living Survey.

Vienna is renowned as one of Europe’s great cultural capitals. Famously beautiful, Vienna has reserved an impressive amount of green space, as well as boasting attractive baroque architecture, magnificent palaces, some of the world’s most celebrated museums, and a renowned café culture. Some places you should visit: Definetly the magnificent Campus of WU, the Opera, Hofburg (imperial palace) and Schönnbrunn Palace (Austrias most visited sight), Spanish Riding School (world’s oldest equestrian institution), museums (e.g. Bellverede with Gustav Klimt’s famous painting “The Kiss”), Danube Island, and the zoo.

5. What are the economic/job prospects like in Vienna?

You can find almost any type of job in the Austrian job market. However, certain industries have higher demand so it is easier to find employment there. The official unemployment rate in 2015 was 6%, placing Austria among the countries with the lowest unemployment rate in the European Union. Every year the “Financial Times” ranks the best management programs in Europe, placing WU among the top 15. One category of the ranking is employability, saying that Alumnis of WU find a job within three months after graduation.