Most places in the Non-EU Student Exchange Program are open to all students of the University of Vienna. In addition to the tuition fee waiver, a financial grant is provided for many places.

Information on the individual agreements can be found on the website of the University's central International Office.

Please read the specific application information of the individual exchange agreements carefully, as business schools are closed for exchange students at some universities.

Please note the respective deadlines for the different regions/countries.

Be aware that due to the long lead times, you usually have to apply for a stay abroad with the programme a year in advance!

Application Requirements and Necessary Documents

On the website of the International Office you will find up-to-date information on the requirements and necessary documents for the application.

• We recommend that you come to the office hours of the International Support for consultation (course recognition, letter of motivation) before you apply!

Contact

Non-EU Student Exchange Program
DLE Internationale Beziehungen/International Office
Universität Wien
Universitätsring 1 - Stiege 5
1010 Wien

+43-1-4277-18206
 +43-1-4277-18211
non-eu-exchange@univie.ac.at

Consultation Hours

Approval/Recognition of classes taken abroad

• This is a general introduction to the recognition procedure.
  Recommendations on which courses are best chosen for an exchange stay and which can be more easily recognised may be found here
  
  
• Please note: Courses already completed may not be "repeated" abroad (repetition of positive examination results)!
  The repetition of completed exams (e.g. to improve the grade) through recognition is prohibited. However, this only applies to 1:1 recognitions, not to the modules that are available for the simplified recognition options.
  
  
• What does "simplified recognition" (Vereinfachte Anerkennung) mean?
  Simplified recognition means that the courses you take at the host university only have to fit roughly into the module and do not have to be identical in content to the courses offered at our university. e.g: In the IBW Master's programme, courses in the B1 Int. Management module can be recognised in a simplified way to the extent of 16 ECTS. You should look for courses that fall into the subject area, they do not have to have exactly the same content as our courses.
  
  
• Important note on the recognition of courses from the business administration majors/minors in the Master's programme BW/IBW
  If you want to complete courses abroad from the subject area (major/minor) in which you are planning to write your master's thesis, the director of studies strongly recommends that you discuss this with the responsible person from the respective subject area (MA thesis supervisor).
  
  
• The necessary documents must be submitted via the Service Desk under Pre-Approval Stays Abroad.

Before the exchange stay

Pre-approvals/recognitions within the semester abroad take place after nomination with the pre-approval form ("Genehmigungsantrag"). This gives you the certainty that pre-approved courses will actually be recognised after completing your stay abroad.
It is in your interest to engage with the recognition procedure in detail in the course of your application.

1. Search for courses from the online course catalogues of the partner universities.
   In most cases, a course catalogue for the period of your stay is not yet available at the time of application, so please refer to the current or past course catalogues. If you do not find what you are looking for on the website of the partner university, please contact the International Office of your host university
2. Think about alternatives in case some of your chosen classes are not offered or you are not accepted in all of them
   Feel free to submit a few more courses for approval than necessary. But do not go overboard - all your submissions have to be processed by us and checked by the SPL, after all.
3. Check the level of the courses
   Here, Master's students in particular should make sure that they select courses from the Master's programmes of the partner universities. At universities with 4-year BA programmes, 4th-year BA courses may also be selected if no or too few MA classes are available upon individual arrangement.
4. Matching course descriptions
   Only equivalent courses, i.e. courses that are at least 80% the same in terms of subject matter, can also be recognised 1:1 for our courses. Therefore, carefully check the desired courses abroad with those of our faculty (ECTS, extent, contents, examination modalities, literature).
   Exception: Simplified recognition - Please use this option as much as possible! (see recognition recommendations)
5. Check the total ECTS of your course selection
   The ECTS points between the courses to be recognised must match or the course at the host university can also have more credits. In the case of 1:1 recognition, the exact number of ECTS credits is recognised (usually 4 ECTS for our courses); in the case of recognition on a module basis, more credits can also be recognised (of course not more than are available in the module).
   The Non-EU Student Exchange Program requires a minimun recognition of 12 ECTS per Semester.
   You may, of course, take more courses at the host university and do not have to have all of them recognised. You also do not have to actually attend all pre-approved courses as long as you collect the required ECTS credits.

6. To be submitted via the Service Desk under "Pre-approval stays abroad" (PDF documents only!):

   • Pre-approval form (provided by the central International Office
     • Left column: Title and ECTS points/credits of the courses at the host university
     • Right column: Title of the courses + modules/minor/major according to your curriculum.In case of simplified recognition, enter the title of the module, e.g. "International Management - Elective Courses Simplified", "Module C. Electives" etc.
       For Bachelor elective module: "Elective module/study abroad".
     • Indication of the ECTS
   • Exact course description for each course
     • 1 document per course, no collected descriptions (Please name your PDFs sensibly! e.g. coursename_SurnameStudent)
     • The course descriptions should ideally be official PDF documents of the host university. Alternatively, you can submit screenshots of the website (including links to the original website). Do NOT submit Word documents or similar that you have copied yourself!

The decision-making authority regarding approval/recognition lies with the director of studies!

Please note:

• Only correct and complete applications for recognition will be processed and forwarded to the director of studies for review. Otherwise, the application must be rejected for formal reasons.
• The submitted documents (confirmations, certificates or similar) must be of an official nature. You can also send links to official pages (content in German or English). Self-created or copied descriptions will not be accepted.
• Communication involving personal data is only possible via the ticket system in connection with your u:account.
  ATTENTION: E-mails/responses from private addresses cannot be considered without exception!

Course recognition recommendations

• What does "simplified recognition" (Vereinfachte Anerkennung) mean?
  Simplified recognition means that the courses you take at the host university only have to fit roughly into the module and do not have to be identical in content to the courses offered at our university. e.g: In the IBW Master's programme, courses in the B1 Int. Management module can be recognised in a simplified way to the extent of 16 ECTS. You should look for courses that fall into the subject area, they do not have to have exactly the same content as our courses.
  We explicitely recommend to use modules eligible for simplified recognition for the exchange stay!
  If you want to complete courses abroad from the subject area (major/minor) in which you are planning to write your master's thesis, the director of studies strongly recommends that you discuss this with the responsible person from the respective subject area (MA thesis supervisor).
• Please note: Courses already completed may not be "repeated" abroad (repetition of positive examination results)!
  The repetition of completed exams (e.g. to improve the grade) through recognition is prohibited. However, this only applies to 1:1 recognitions, not to the modules that are available for the simplified recognition options.
• Can only courses for the modules of the simplified recognition be taken and recognised?
  In principle, you may take as many courses as the host university allows you to - regardless of whether they are recognised here or not. You can also submit any other courses for recognition and have them checked by the SPL, but this would then be a 1:1 recognition, i.e. the content, examination modalities etc. must be at least 80% the same as the course offered by us.
  We strongly recommend that you make use of the simplified recognition as far as possible!
• Are there lists of past approved recognitions?
  For capacity reasons, we are not able to keep lists of equivalents, this would also not make much sense due to the various specialisations of our students and the diverse and constantly changing course offer by our numerous partner universities.
  Please compare the courses offered at the partner university with the courses of your curriculum or the modules that can be recognised in a simplified way before you apply.

Student Reports

Student reports reflect personal impressions and do not have to agree with the opinion of the International Office of the University of Vienna or the International Support.

The reports are intended as initial information to give a brief overview of the respective university. Changes to the reported situations on site can always occur.

You can find the collected experience reports of former participants of the Non-EU Student Exchange Program here

During the stay (course changes)

Course changes are possible and do occur due to the extensive lead times. It is very important that you inform us as soon as possible if you have to change some of your courses.

If you are on an Erasmus+ stay, please use the "Versioning" function on Mobility Online for course changes.

All other outgoings please proceed in the same way as for pre-approval and submit an approval request form via the ticket system which ONLY contains the new recognitions to be approved.

After the stay (course recognition)

Necessary documents (PDF format!)

• Completely filled-in second page of the course recognition form.
  • Left column: Title and ECTS points/credits of the courses at the host university
  • Right column: Title of the courses + modules/minor/major according to your curriculum.
    in the case of simplified recognition, enter the module title, e.g. "International Management - Elective Courses Simplified", "Module C. Electives" etc.
    for Bachelor elective module: "Elective module/study abroad".
  • Indication of ECTS
• Copy of pre-approval form with courses approved by the director of studies before the stay
• If you are submitting courses for recognition which were not pre-approved by the SPL: detailled course description for these courses
• Transcript of records of the host university

Submission

Via our Service Desk under "Recognition of stays abroad".

Please note:

• Only correct and complete applications for recognition will be processed and forwarded to the director of studies for review. Otherwise, the application must be rejected for formal reasons.
• The submitted documents (confirmations, certificates or similar) must be of an official nature.
• Communication with personal data is only possible via the ticket system in connection with your u:account.
  ATTENTION: E-mails/responses from private addresses cannot be considered without exception! Use your u:account e-mail!