University of Vienna

University of Vienna
Universität Wien
Latin: Universitas Vindobonensis, also called Alma Mater Rudolphina
Established	1365
Type	Public university
Budget	€ 522 million
President	Heinz Engl
Academic staff	6,730
Admin. staff	2,960
Students	around 92,000[1]
Location	Vienna, Austria 48°12′47″N 16°21′35″E / 48.21306°N 16.35972°E / 48.21306; 16.35972Coordinates: 48°12′47″N 16°21′35″E / 48.21306°N 16.35972°E / 48.21306; 16.35972
Campus	Urban
Affiliations	EUA, UNICA
Website	www.univie.ac.at/en
Data as of 2013

The University of Vienna (German: Universität Wien) is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich history, the University of Vienna has developed into one of the biggest universities in Europe, and also one of the most renowned, especially in the Humanities. It is associated with 15 Nobel prize winners and has been the academic home of a large number of figures both of historical and academic importance.

History

From the Medieval Age to the Enlightenment

Crowned bust of Rudolf IV von Habsburg, Duke of Austria on a 50 Schilling coin of the Republic of Austria, commemorating the 600th Anniversary of the University of Vienna

The University was founded on 12 March 1365 by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, and his two brothers, Dukes Albert III and Leopold III, hence the additional name "Alma Mater Rudolphina". After the Charles University in Prague and Jagiellonian University in Krakow, the University of Vienna is the third oldest university in Central Europe and the oldest university in the German-speaking world. It was modelled after the University of Paris. However, Pope Urban V did not ratify the deed of foundation that had been sanctioned by Rudolf IV, specifically in relation to the department of theology. This was presumably due to pressure exerted by Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, who wished to avoid competition for the Charles University in Prague. Approval was finally received from the Pope in 1384 and the University of Vienna was granted the status of a full university, including the Faculty of Catholic Theology. The first university building opened in 1385. It quite grew into the biggest university of the Holy Roman Empire, and during the advent of Humanism in the mid-15th century was home to more than 6,000 students.

In its early years, the university had a partly hierarchical, partly cooperative structure, in which the Rector was at the top, while the students who had little say and were settled at the bottom. The Magister and Doctors constituted the four faculties and elected the academic officials from amidst their ranks. The students, but also all other Supposita (university members), were divided into four Academic Nations. Their elected board members, mostly graduates themselves, had the right to elect the Rector. He presided over the Consistory which included procurators of each of the nations and the faculty deans, as well as over the University Assembly, in which all university teachers participated. Complaints or appeals against decisions of faculty by the students had to be brought forward by a Magister or Doctor.

Being considered a Papal Institution, the university suffered quite a setback during the Reformation. In addition, the first Siege of Vienna by Ottoman forces had devastating effects on the city, leading to a sharp decline, with only 30 student numbers enrolled at the lowest point. For King Ferdinand I of Austria, this meant that the university should be tight to the church to an even stronger degree, and in 1551 he installed the Jesuit order there. For more than 150 years, the university became as stronghold of Catholicism, and it was only in the Mid-18th century that Empress Maria Theresa forced the university under control of the monarchy. Her successor Joseph II helped in the further reform of the university, allowing both Protestants and Jews to enroll as well as introducing German as the compulsory language of instruction.

From the 19th century onwards

University of Vienna, main building, seen from across the Ringstraße

Big changes were institutet in the wake of the Revolution in 1848， with the Philosophical Faculty being upgraded into equal status as Theology, Law and Medicine. Led by the reforms of Leopold, Count von Thun und Hohenstein, the university was able to achieve a larger degree of academic freedom. The current main building on the Ringstraße was built between 1877 and 1884 by Heinrich von Ferstel. The previous main building was located close to the Stuben Gate (Stubentor) on Iganz Seipel Square, current home of the old University Church (Universitätskirche) and the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften). Women were admitted as full students from 1897, although their studies were limited to Philosophy. The remaining departments gradually followed suit, although with considerable delay: Medicine in 1900, Law in 1919, Protestant Theology in 1923 and finally Roman Catholic Theology in 1946. Ten years after the admission of the first female students, Elise Richter became the first woman to receive habilitation, becoming professor of Romance Languages in 1907; she was also the first female distinguished professor.

In the late 1920s, the university was in steady turmoil because of anti-democratic and anti-semite activity by parts of the student body. Professor Moritz Schlick was killed by a former student while ascending the steps of the University for a class. His murderer was later released by the Nazi Regime. Following the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria into Greater Germany by the Nazi regime, in 1938 the University of Vienna was reformed under political aspects and a huge number of teachers and students were dismissed for political and "racial" reasons.^[2] In April 1945, the then 22-year-old Kurt Schubert, later acknowledged doyen of Judaic Studies at the University of Vienna, was permitted by the Soviet occupation forces to open the university again for teaching, which is why he is regarded as the unofficial first rector in the post-war period. On 25 April 1945, however, the constitutional lawyer Ludwig Adamovich senior was elected as official rector of the University of Vienna. A large degree of participation by students and university staff was realized in 1975, however the University Reforms of 1993 and 2002 largely re-established the professors as the main decision makers. However, also as part of the last reform, the university after more than 250 years under being largely under governmental control, finally regained its full legal capacity back. The number of faculties and centers was increased to 18, and the whole of the medical faculty separated into the new Medical University of Vienna.

Location

Main Ceremonial Chamber (Großer Festsaal) in the Main Building

The University of Vienna does not have one joint campus. The academic facilities occupy more than sixty locations throughout the city of Vienna. The historical main building on the Ringstraße constitutes the university's centre and is commonly referred to as "die Uni". The most other larger university facilities and lecture halls are located nearby in the area of Vienna's first and ninth district: the so-called new lecture hall complex (NIG), the lecture hall complex Althanstraße (UZA), the so-called Campus on the premises of the historical general hospital of Vienna, the faculty of law (Juridicum) and many more.
Also worth mentioning is the Vienna Observatory, which belongs to the university, and the Institute for University Sports (USI), which offers training and recreational possibilities to all students of the university.
In addition, the University of Vienna maintains facilities outside of Vienna in the Austrian provinces of Lower Austria, Upper Austria and Salzburg. These are mainly research and experimental departments for Biology, Astrophysics and Sports.

Organization

The University of Vienna, like all universities and academies in Austria, once featured a system of democratic representation. Power in the university was divided equally among three groups: students (the largest group), junior faculty and full professors. All groups had the right to send representatives to boards, who then voted on almost every issue.

The former government of Austria, headed by then-chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel (in office 2000–2007), reformed the university system with the effect of concentrating power in the hands of the full professors.^{[citation needed]} The reform also introduced a board of governors and tuition fees (about €367 per semester in 2007 for non-EU students, while students from within the EU only pay the ÖH-fee). The reforms also separated the medical departments into separate medical schools, such as the Medical University of Vienna.

Research and teaching

Some 6,500 scholars undertake the research and teaching activity of the university. Of these, approximately 980 are active in projects financed by third parties.

Faculties and Centres

The University of Vienna consists of 15 faculties and three centres:

1. Faculty of Catholic Theology
2. Faculty of Protestant Theology
3. Faculty of Law
4. Faculty of Business, Economics and Statistics (not to be confused with the Vienna University of Economics and Business)
5. Faculty of Computer science
6. Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies
7. Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies
8. Faculty of Philosophy and Education
9. Faculty of Psychology
10. Faculty of Social sciences
11. Faculty of Mathematics
12. Faculty of Physics
13. Faculty of Chemistry
14. Faculty of Earth Sciences, Geography and Astronomy
15. Faculty of Life sciences

1. Centre for Translation studies
2. Centre for Sport science and University Sports
3. Centre for Molecular biology

Famous members

Faculty and scholars

Nobel Prize Laureates who taught at the University of Vienna include Robert Bárány, Julius Wagner-Jauregg, Hans Fischer, Karl Landsteiner, Erwin Schrödinger, Victor Franz Hess, Otto Loewi, Konrad Lorenz and Friedrich Hayek.

The University of Vienna was the cradle of the Austrian School of economics. The founders of this école who studied and later instructed at the University of Vienna included Carl Menger, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Friedrich von Wieser, Joseph Schumpeter, Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek.

Other famous scholars who have taught at the University of Vienna are: Theodor W. Adorno, Manfred Bietak, Theodor Billroth, Ludwig Boltzmann, Franz Brentano, Anton Bruckner, Rudolf Carnap, Conrad Celtes, Viktor Frankl, Sigmund Freud, Eduard Hanslick, Edmund Hauler, Hans Kelsen, Adam František Kollár, Johann Josef Loschmidt, Fran Miklošič, Oskar Morgenstern, Otto Neurath, Johann Palisa, Pope Pius II, Baron Carl von Rokitansky, Rudolf von Scherer, August Schleicher, Moritz Schlick, Ludwig Karl Schmarda, Joseph von Sonnenfels, Josef Stefan, Leopold Vietoris, Jalile Jalil, Carl Auer von Welsbach, and Olga Taussky-Todd.

Alumni

Some of the University's better-known students include: Christian Doppler, Kurt Adler, Wilhelm Altar, Franz Alt, Bruno Bettelheim, Rudolf Bing, Lucian Blaga, Hedda Bolgar, Josef Breuer, F. F. Bruce, Elias Canetti, Ivan Cankar, Otto Maria Carpeaux, Felix Ehrenhaft, Mihai Eminescu, Janko Ferk, Paul Feyerabend, Heinz Fischer, O. W. Fischer, Ivan Franko, Sigmund Freud, Alcide De Gasperi, Ernst Gombrich, Kurt Gödel, Erich Göstl, Franz Grillparzer, Jörg Haider, Theodor Herzl, Edmund Husserl, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Marie Jahoda, Elfriede Jelinek, Percy Lavon Julian, Karl Kautsky, Elisabeth Kehrer, Hans Kelsen, Rudolf Kirchschläger, Arthur Koestler, Jernej Kopitar, Karl Kordesch, Karl Kraus, Bruno Kreisky, Richard Kuhn, Paul Lazarsfeld, Gustav Mahler, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Lise Meitner, Gregor Mendel, Franz Mesmer, Franc Miklošič, Alois Mock, Matija Murko, Eduard Pernkopf, Pope Pius III, Maxim Podoprigora, Hans Popper, Karl Popper, Otto Preminger, Wilhelm Reich, Peter Safar, Mordkhe Schaechter, Arthur Schnitzler, Albin Schram, Wolfgang Schüssel, Joseph Schumpeter, John J. Shea, Jr., Adalbert Stifter, Countess Stoeffel, Yemima Tchernovitz-Avidar, Kurt Waldheim, Otto Weininger, Slavko Wolf, Stefan Zweig, and Huldrych Zwingli.

Nobel Prize Laureates

The grand staircase (Feststiege) in the Main Building

There are total 15 Nobel Prize Laureates affiliated to the University as follows:

The University Library

Vienna University Library, main reading room

Largest research library in Austria

The University Library of the University of Vienna comprises the Main Library and the 50 departmental libraries at the various university locations throughout Vienna. The library's primary responsibility is to the members of the university; however, the library's 350 staff members also provide access to the public. Use of the books in the reading halls is open to all persons without the need for identification, which is only required for checking out books. The library's website provides direct access to information such as electronic journals, online indices and databases.

Library statistics (2007)

• Book inventory: 6,657,447 (of which 2,604,823 belong to the Main Library)
• Journals: 11,545 (of which 3,027 belong to the Main Library)
• Active borrowers: 82,554
• Search queries on OPAC: 13,381,986
• Borrowings and renewals of books: 5,826,402
• Oldest book: Pliny the Elder (1469). Historia naturalis.

Library history

Rudolph IV, in the Foundation Deed of 12 March 1365, had already provided for a publica libraria, where the valuable books bequeathed by deceased members of the University should be collected. Through many legacies, this collection was subsequently greatly increased and became the basis of the old Libreye that was accommodated in the same building as the student infirmary. In addition, there were libraries in the separate Faculties and in the Duke's College.

From the 17th Century, interest in the old library, with its manuscripts and incunabulae, went into decline and the modern library in the Jesuit College came to the fore. In 1756, the oldest university library was finally closed down and its books, 2787 volumes, were incorporated into the Court Library, of which Gerard van Swieten was then director. After the dissolution of the Jesuit order (1773), the new "Academic Library" was created out of the book collections of the five Lower Austrian Colleges and a large number of duplicates from the Court Library. This was opened on 13 May 1777, the birthday of Maria Theresa of Austria, in the building of the Academic College. Initially, the stock consisted of some 45,000 books and during Emperor Joseph II's dissolution of the monasteries, this was soon considerably extended. In contrast to its antecedents, the new library was open to the general public. Between 1827 and 1829, it acquired the classicist extension (Postgasse 9) to the Academic College, in which it was to be accommodated until 1884. In this year, the main library, with some 300,000 books, moved to Heinrich von Ferstel's new Main Building on the Ring, where stacks for some 500,000 volumes had already been prepared. With an annual growth of up to 30,000 volumes, the surplus space was soon filled. Book storage space had to be extended continuously. One hundred years later, the complete library, including departmental and subject libraries, comprised more than 4.3 million volumes. Today, Vienna's University Library is the largest collection of books in Austria, with the greatest problems of space. In addition to the Main Library, which alone has to cope with an annual growth of 40,000 volumes, it includes today, three Faculty Libraries, 32 Subject Libraries and 26 Departmental Libraries.^[3]

International acclaim

The University of Vienna is highly regarded in the field of Humanities, where it is placed 35 and 54th in the world according to the THE and QS ranking respectively. Outstanding subjects include Geography (ranked 28th globally in 2013), Linguistics and Philosophy (both 46th globally). It is rated high in academic reputation and number of international students, but low in terms of faculty to student ratio and citations per faculty. ^{[4][5] [6]}

QS World University rankings Year Rank (Change) 2004 94 2005 65 ( 29) 2006 87 ( 22) 2007 85 ( 2) 2008 115 ( 30) 2009 132 ( 17) 2010 143 ( 11) 2011 155 ( 8) 2012 160 ( 5) 2013 158 ( 2)

Times Higher Education World University rankings Year Rank (Change) 2010–11 195 2011–12 139 ( 56) 2012–13 162 ( 23) 2013-4 170 ( 8)

Academic Ranking of World Universities Year Rank (Change) 2004 84 2004 86 ( 2) 2005 85 ( 1) 2006 151–200 2007 151–200 2008 152–200 2009 152–200 2010 151–200 2011 151–200 2012 151–200 2013 151–200

Gallery

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  A hallway at the University of Vienna

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  Bust of Heinrich Ferstel, the constructor of the main building

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  Bust of Erwin Schrödinger in the courtyard arcade

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  Bust of Ludwig Boltzmann in the courtyard arcade

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  Bust of Rudolf von Scherer in the courtyard arcade

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  Botanical Garden of the University of Vienna

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  Campus of the University of Vienna

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  Main Ceremonial Chamber (Festsaal) in the Main Building]

See also

• Education in Austria
• Klimt University of Vienna Ceiling Paintings
• Institute Vienna Circle
• ERC Grants Austria
• List of medieval universities

Notes and references

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to University of Vienna.

• University of Vienna (English version)
• Information for Students at the University of Vienna (English version)

v t e Universities and colleges in Austria Public Universities University of Vienna University of Graz University of Innsbruck University of Salzburg Vienna University of Technology Graz University of Technology University of Leoben University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna Vienna University of Economics and Business Johannes Kepler University of Linz Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt Danube University Krems Public art schools University of Applied Arts Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna Mozarteum University of Salzburg University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz University of Arts and Industrial Design Linz Academy of Fine Arts Vienna Public medical schools Medical University of Vienna Medical University of Graz Innsbruck Medical University Private Universities Anton Bruckner Private University for Music, Drama, and Dance Danube Private University European Peace University Catholic-Theological Private University Linz Konservatorium Wien MODUL University Vienna Paracelsus Private Medical University of Salzburg Private Universität für Gesundheitswissenschaften, Medizinische Informatik und Technik New Design University Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg Sigmund Freud University Vienna Webster University Vienna See also: List of universities in Austria