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International Programme
The International Programme (IP) was created as an endeavour of the UAS BFI Vienna to guarantee a sufficiently wide range of courses that meet the needs of incoming students and facilitate networking and idea exchange between local and international students.
The IP offers courses on economic and management related topics and foreign languages, with an international and intercultural focus. All courses are offered in English and/or the language to be learnt (German, Chinese). However, the participation of international students in the programme has to be clarified individually and recognition of the course in the respective degree programme can only be guaranteed in certain cases.
The International Programme offers the following courses:
Integrated Courses
After successful completion of the course, students have a comprehensive knowledge of the social and economic history of Europe from the Industrial Revolution to the present. The focus of this course lies on understanding economic developments and the reasons for development and underdevelopment. Further, the students are invited to look at the position of Europe in a globalised world, based on the economic and historical insight they have gained in the lecture. The course covers topics from proto-industries and prerequisites of industrialisation to globalisation, democracy, and terrorism in the 21st century.
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
After successful completion of the course, students have acquired a full understanding of the historical and economic development of the European Union from its foundation until today. The focus of this course lies on economic developments inside the European Union in the last decades and the students are invited to look at future trends in the European Union based on the economic and historical insight they have gained in the lecture. The course cover topics from the historical concept of ”Europe“ as a unity to the EU in the 21st century: Euro crisis & sovereign debt crisis, migration, Brexit, the Corona crisis.
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
Intercultural Management
After successful completion of the course, students can differentiate between cultural dimensions, they can use different communication styles (direct-indirect, high-low context communication) and decide on suitable international recruiting practices. They understand the importance of concepts such as diversity and unconscious bias. As part of the course, students participate in both CREACT workshops.
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
After successful completion of the course, students are able to conduct strategic analyses in a variety of industries and competitive situations and, especially, base their analysis on a good understanding of the competitive challenges of a global market environment. They will also be able to think strategically about a company, its present business position, its long-term direction, its resources and competitive capabilities, the calibre of its present strategy, and its opportunities for gaining sustainable competitive advantage.
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
International Corporate Finance
After successful completion of this course, students are familiar with different methods for analysing investment projects, they are able to evaluate the financial viability of investments using different methods of analysis, they know and understand different financing instruments and are able to compare the advantages of different financing instruments.
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
After the successful completion of the course, students are able to apply the specific instruments of global marketing. They are able to analyze the global marketing environment: segmentation, targeting, positioning globally international trade institutions, cultural/economic/political/legal environments; global marketing management, strategic planning market expansion; beginning international marketing activities: export, licensing, franchising, competitive strategies, product adaptation, pricing strategies, brand strategies, services marketing; global promotional strategies including the importance of social media, marketing channels.
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
International Project Management
After the successful completion of the course, students are able to define the structure of a project, use tools to assess the risks of projects, select the right methods for effort estimation, schedule a project, plan the resources needed for a project, calculate the costs of projects, and report about project progress. Furthermore, students learn to understand how culture affects international project management, know how to manage diverse, globally based teams, and select appropriate communication tools for international teams.
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
Module: Cross-cultural Reflection & Action
The module is directed at outgoing students and is designed to facilitate intercultural competence development during their exchange semester.
Additionally, incoming students participate in the CREACT workshops as part of the course “Intercultural Management”.
The module extends over three semesters and consists of the following courses:
• CREACT Preparation workshop (before the exchange semester)
• CREACT Virtual learning
• CREACT Reflection workshop (after the exchange semester)
After successful completion of the module, students are aware of their own, characteristic way of behaving in a given cultural context, of how another person or group behaves in a given context; they are able to manage their thoughts and emotions as they become aware of the nature of the cultural gap between themselves and the culturally different other, and bridge this cultural gap by taking the other’s perspectives. After successful completion of CREACT, outgoing students will have acquired the Global Competence Certificate. The module will be graded with “successfully completed”.
Workload: 3 ECTS credits (recognition is guaranteed for bachelor outgoing students, excluding double degree participants)
Practical Courses
Austrian Language and Culture (Beginner)
After successful completion of the course, students will be able to greet, ask and understand simple questions, talk about themselves, about what they do in their spare time and professionally, talk about their family, make appointments, say, and understand numbers and time, and understand people talking about their daily routine or about what they did the day before.
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
Austrian Language and Culture (Intermediate)
After successful completion of the course, students will be able to communicate in a simple and connected way in everyday situations, when travelling and when talking about topics that are of personal interest. They can describe experiences, hopes and ambitions and give reasons for opinions. Overall, they have an overview of and can use the most important grammatical structures correctly.
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
Austrian Language and Culture (Advanced)
After successful completion of the course, the students will have broadened their vocabulary at an advanced level and have further improved their skills (listening, reading, writing and speaking). Besides, they will have a detailed insight into Austrian regional and cultural studies.
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
Chinese Language, Culture, and Business
After successful completion of the course, participants will have acquired the Chinese language skills needed to have basic conversations about everyday life and business occasions. After the ten course sessions, participants will understand China’s economy and culture by discussing current trends that influence China as well as the world. They will learn how to use effective cross-cultural communication skills. This will enable them to be more effective in dealing with Chinese companies in their future careers. In addition, they can further improve their Chinese language skills themselves by using the methodology taught in this course.
Workload: 3 ECTS credits
The EU and the Eurasian Economic Union: Competition, Conflict and International Business
After successful completion of this course, students will have gained a thorough understanding of cooperation and convergence vs. competition and conflicts between the EU and the Russian dominated Eurasian Economic Union. They will be aware of the multidimensional nature of these conflicts and of the fact that they have, at the same time, specific impacts on international businesses operating in the region.
Workload: 3 ECTS credits
Please notice that the above-mentioned courses only take place with an adequate number of participants.
Additionally, incoming students can choose courses from other degree programmes which are open for them. A comprehensive list can be found https://www.fh-vie.ac.at/en/pages/ects-lehrveranstaltungsinformation.