Persons to Contact

 
Our Team

Please contact our Team for specific questions about your studies in our degree programme. Our coordinator will answer questions concerning Learning Agreement, courses and research at our department. Our office helps with administrative questions, course registration and exams.
You received the name of the person in charge of guiding you in your letter of acceptance. This letter was sent by our International Office after your nomination. In case you did not receive it, please contact our colleagues.
Should you come to Vienna for reaseach on f.ex. your master thesis and need a supervisor, please check on this matter asap with your coordinator in Vienna!
In case you are already in Vienna and need signatures or help, please contact your coordinator during the office hours or apply to our office.

A bit of advice here: Bumping into the office of a person, especially professors or teaching staff members without contacting them in advance is not a good thing to do. Kindly make appointments or stick to office hours! You can also tyr to catch your teacher shortly before or after your course at the lecture hall.

International Office

For general questions concerning your ERASMUS stay, please visit the website of the International Office. The International Office receives your nomination from your home university and sends you the Letter of Acceptance. They can answer questions regarding your admission and student ID card, accommodation, living in Vienna etc.
If you want/have to visit courses at different departmnets/degree programmes the International Office can also help you with difficulties regarding the Learning Agreement.
  

Course Offer and Course Choice

 
Course Directory

The courses offered by our department can be found in the course directory (at directorate of study 22). Detailed course information, such as the language of instruction, first course sessions, lessons per week and ECTS credits are stated in the respective course descriptions.

Please keep in mind that the "Master Communication Science (550)" is not part of our course programme and therefor courses from this Master cannot be taken.

Should you need even more detailed information about a certain course, please contact the course instructor directly.

The course directory for the upcoming semester is published on July 1st (for the winter semester) or January 15 (for the summer semester). If you need an overview of the offered courses earlier, please refer to the course catalogue of the relevant preceding semester. The courses are more or less repeating on a yearly basis. Please note, however, that not all courses are held each semester and changes to the course offer are possible. Our courses are usually held in the seminar rooms of our department's building (Währingerstrasse 29).

 
Language requirements and courses taught in Englisch

In order to take up your studies in our degree programme you are required to speak and write German at a level of B2 with regard to the Common European Framework of References for Languages (CEFR). ERASMUS students do not need to complete any official language test; however, your home university must confirm the required level during your online nomination.

If you are able to find a sufficient amount of courses taught in Englisch in our degree programme, you may also take up your studies without sufficient knowledge in German. Please note that we only offer a very limited number of courses taught in Englisch and the courses from our "Communication Science Master" cannot be taken. Knowledge of the German language is strongly recommended for students, especially in the Bachelor degree programme in order to achieve the demanded amount of ECTS credits! However, basic language skills in German are needed in order to be able to find your way around in Vienna and handle matters in offices.

The courses taught in Englisch in our degree programme can be found in in the course directory U:FIND entering the following command (without brackets, with blank characters):

• For courses during the winter semester: lang:en SPL [22] [year]W
• For courses during the summer semester: lang:eng SPL [22] [year]S

Courses offered at the Sprachenzentrum (Language Center) are not courses of the university! They will not show on your transcript of records and due to technical reasons cannot be added to the transcript by our staff. You are very welcome to take German classes and will be given a certificate that also includes ECTS credits, but please check in advance with your home-university if those courses can be recognized later on!

  
ECTS and course types

Please note that the number of courses resp. amount of ECTS credits you need to obtain during your stay depends on your home university’s requirements.

There are basically two different course types at the University of Vienna which sometimes come withdifferent names and slightly different requirements:

• Lecutres (Vorlesungen, VO) and lectures with discussion (Vorlesungen mit Konversatorium, VK) are courses where regular attendance is not mandatory. There usually is a written or an oral exam at the end of the semester in order to obtain a grade.
• Training courses (Übungen, UE), proseminars (Proseminare, PS) and seminars (SE) are courses with compulsory and regular attendance. Assessment criteria are active course participation, presentations, midterm-tests, papers and written and/or oral end-term tests.

Please take in mind that a VU (lecture with integrated tutorial) requires participation in both courses (lecture+tutorial) in order to be graded!The tutorial ist structured like a training course.

Detailed information about the courses can be found in U:FIND (detail view).

Grades are awarded within a five-digit grading system ranging from 1 (excellent) to 5 (unsatisfactory). 1-4 hereby stand for a positive completion.

For courses with required regular attendance academical and linguistic eligibility have to be checked with the teaching staff in advance.

If you have been nominated for our degree programme, you can in general choose from all courses conducted by our department that suit your study cycle (BA, MA, PhD) or are lower then yours. (excluding the Master 550 Communication Science)
Because of the high number of students, places in courses with a limited number of participants such as training courses (‘Übung’, ‘UE’) or seminars (‘Seminar’, ‘SE’) cannot be guaranteed because the registration procedure is evaluated automatically. However normally it is not a problem to get a place in the prefered courses if prior knowlegde and language skills are sufficient and you stick to our registration procedure.

If you are not sure with your courses we recommend concentrating rather on lectures. Those are particularly suitable for Incoming students as you can switch between them very easily (no attendance required) and the workload is rather low.

  
Courses for external students in our degree programme

Exchange students who have not been nominated for our field of study but still want to take courses in Communication Science can participate in our Extension Curricula (EC):

• Public Communication
  
• Social Media
• Public Affairs

You do not have to discuss your participation with our departmental coordinator beforehand. If you want these lectures confirmed on your Learning Agreement, however, please contact our coordinator for the required signature. Participation in other types of courses generally is not possible.

Students who are nominated für Communication Science are free to also choose courses from other degree programmes if it suits their academic goals. However please check on the possibilities yourself! Every department/degree programme has its own rules about the participation of extrernal students. You can find further information about this topic as well as a list with our International Office.
    

Learning Agreement und Confirmations

We kindly ask you to submit your Learning Agreement before the course registration starts. Other then that there is no deadline. Should you need a signature earlier then that for your Home-University, just send us your Agreement at any given time. The Learning Agreement can be submitted by the following means:

• Mail (to: Jean Kalunseviko, Kolingasse 14-16, 1090 Vienna)
• Email (to: erasmus.pkw@univie.ac.at)
• Erasmus Dashboard (send invitation link to: erasmus.pkw@univie.ac.at)
• Mobility Online

Please keep in mind that our Coordinator only can confirm courses from our study programme (course number 22XXXX). You have to get a signature for every other study programme you wish to take courses at.
In case you wish to take courses from other study programmes then ours, kindly check on the "courses outside my nominated field of studies"-rules at the departments in question.

A confirmation for your attendance in a course can only be issued by the respective teaching staff. Please contact them directly.
Any confirmation concerning the passing of exams or courses cannot be issued. In these cases the Transcript of Records is sufficient as proof of your performance.

Should you need a signature on any form of your University that is not an official Erasmus document, kindly contact our International Office about it.

For the date of your arival and/or departure the Certificate of Arrival and/or Certificate of Attendance are issued by our international Office. We do not sign other forms confirming the duration of your stay in Vienna.
Please take in mind that all forms need some days to be handled.

The participation in language course at the Sprachenzentrum as well as courses related to Austria are confirmed by ou International Office.

Registration and Deregistration

 
Registration Periods

The course registration in our field of studies takes place in September for winter semester and February for summer semester. The exact dates are published on the website of our directorate of studies. The registration periods differ for all fields of studies!

During the registration period there is no "First-Come-First-Served"-principle. Please note that a registration is in any case necessary, even if you do not wish to take part without taking the exam.  Without registration, participation is not posible.

Course registration takes place in U:SPACE. You do not have to be in Vienna for the registration. You will receive your Matrikelnummer (student ID) in time via email as well as an explanation how to activate your u:account. With this account you can also do the course registration.

 
Course Registration

For the registration follow the registration-link in the course catalogue. This link is found in the details of the respective course at the subitem "Registration". This link is only visable during the registration period!

Please choose the option ["Erasmus-Modul"] during the registration. Further information about this topic can be found here.
It is possible that the registration fails for you due to technical issues. It is therefore very important to:

Wirte an email addressing Manuela Hochschwendner after your registration. This email has to contain the following information in full:

• Name and "Matrikelnummer" (student ID)
• List of all courses in Communication Studies you wish to take part in, including:

• Confirmation of the course instructor, that you are allowed to participate if the course has continuous assessments.  

Please be patient. Your request will be dealt with in time. Ms. Hochschwendner will examine your course list and contact you within the nex days. There is no need to worry, as long as you contacted her within the time of the registration period.

In U:SPACE a successful registration is displayed with the status "angemeldet" shortly after the registration period ends.
The status "vorgemerkt"can be ignored during the registration period.
Should you she any other status after the registration period ended, please contact the course-instructor asap. In case of a technical cause, write to Manuela Hochschwendner to solve the issue.

For courses with continuous assessment, your attendance is mandatory in the first unit. Should you stay away without excuse, you can loose you seat in this course!

After the registration period, your status will be set to "angemeldet" or "Warteliste" (latter means the course is already fully booked). Should your status be "Warteliste" (in case you did not contact Ms. Hochschwendner prior), kindly take part in the first unit of the course by all means. Students who do not show up will loose their seats and it is possible that you can take part instead.

You can find further information about courses at our University in generall with our International Office.

 
Deregistration

Should you wish to not take part at a course any longer, kindly deregister via U:SPACE asap. In this way your seat maybe still can be given to someone else.  This also applies in case you want to swap courses. During the semester a deregistration via U:SPACE is possible until October 31 (winter semester)  April 30 (summer semester). Please also tell your course-instructor about your deregistration.

Not deregistering from a course can lead to an entry in your transcript of records with a negative grade for said course.

Exams and Transcript of Records

In order to participate in any exam, a registration in U:SPACE is required.

Normally the regstration for an exam is done 1-3 weeks before the exam takes place. A cancellation is possible latest 48 hours before the exam takes place. Any belated registration or cancellation is not possible.  

Exam dates are normally announce during the first lession of a course, once the semester started.  Generally exams take place at the end of the semester but can also be set up until one week after the semester ends. (1^st week of February or 1^st week of July)

The specific dates are announced on the website of our directorate of studies.

Transcript of Records/Confirmation of Participation

Generally all grades including ECTS are displayed in U:SPACE within one month after the exam. You can print a valid transcript of records in U:SPACE (>personal>my documents). This transcript includes a digital stamp and signature and is therefore an official document. This option is available until your registration at our University ends (April 30 for winter semester and November 30 for summer semester).

In case you need no grades but a confirmation for your participation in a course, that does not include ECTS, please talk to your professor or tutor in the beginning of the semester.
Confirmations for successfully passed courses or exams can not be issued.