Welcome to the information area for international exchange students in Social and Cultural Anthropology (BA, MA) at the University of Vienna

On this website you will find information about your ERASMUS stay in our field of study at the University of Vienna. Please read the information carefully. If you have further questions, please turn to your departmental coordinator who has been indicated in your Letter of Acceptance.

Please make sure you also read the International Office's checklists which are relevant for your period of stay carefully as they provide important general information.

Content of this page:

1. Contact Persons
2. Course offer and course choice
3. Learning Agreement / Department-Specific Confirmations
4. Course registration
5. Exams and Transcript of Records

In case you will be doing research in Vienna (for example for your master thesis) and require additional supervision, please discuss this with your departmental coordinator as soon as possible.

International Office

For general information 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. Additionally, confirmations of arrival/departure are issued EXCLUSIVELY by the International Office.

2. Course offer and course choice

Course Catalogue

The courses offered by our department can be found in the course directory (BA / MA). 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. Should you need even more detailed information about a certain course, please contact the departmental coordinator.

This schematic representation of our BA Curriculum may help you for your orientation. The structure of the programme gives you information about the thematic focus areas at our department and the levels of difficulty of different courses.

Here you can find short description of our MA programme including thematic focus areas.   

The course catalogue for the upcoming semester is published on 1st of July (for the winter semester) or 15th of January (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. 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 Neues Insitutsgebäude (NIG) of the university, Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Vienna.

Language requirements and courses taught in English

In order to take up your studies in our field of study you are required to speak and write German at a level of B1 with regard to the Common European Framework of References for Languages (CEFR), because we offer a limited amount of English BA courses. 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 exchange students find enough English courses at our department, they can study without any German knowledge - according to our Bachelor curriculum, an English language level of at least B2 is recommended.

In our MA programme there are regularly courses taught in English. Therefor you may also take up your studies without any knowledge of German. However, basic language skills in German are strongly recommended in order to be able to find your way around in Vienna.

You can find courses taught in English in the course catalogue U:FIND entering the following command (without brackets, with blank characters).

• For courses taught in English during the winter semester: lang:en SPL 24 [year]W
• For courses taught in English during the summer semester: lang:eng SPL 24 [year]S

ECTS and course types

Please note that the number of courses and the amount of ECTS credits you need to obtain at the University of Vienna depends on your home university’s requirements.

There are different course types: Lectures (Vorlesungen, VO) 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) lecture seminars (Vorlesungsseminare, VS) 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.
Grades are awarded within a five-digit grading system ranging from 1 (excellent) to 5 (unsatisfactory).

Exchange students do not have to take courses from the STEOP module (“Studieneingangs- und Orientierungsphase“ i.e. “Introduction and Orientation Phase”); you are even recommended not to take any of these courses.

Advanced students who have been nominated for the Bachelor programme may also attend courses from the Master's programme if they have sufficient knowledge on the subject. However, this must be cleared up with the departmental coordinator first.

If you have been nominated for our field of study, you can follow all types of courses conducted by our department.

Courses for external students in our field of study

Exchange students who have not been nominated for our field of study but who would still like to take courses at our department can participate in lectures without having to discuss this with the course instructor or the departmental coordinator beforehand. Participation in other types of courses is only possible if the course instructor grants permission at the beginning of the semester. After you have been accepted into the course, contact our departmental coordinator who will sign the course in your Learning Agreement.

3. Learning Agreement / Specific Confirmations

Learning Agreement

When you have been nominated for our field of study, we kindly ask you to send us your Learning Agreement by mid-September (for the stay in the winter semester) or by mid-February (for the stay in the summer semester).
Information on how to submit the Learning Agreement can be found on the International Office website. Please note that only courses from our department can be selected for the Learning Agreement before the mobility. Please be aware, that 50 % of the chosen courses have to be offered by the department of Social and Cultural Anthropology!

Confirmation of other courses

The participation in language courses at the Language Center and in courses relating to Austria will not be confirmed by the departmental coordinator. If you wish to have these courses confirmed as well, please contact the International Office.

If you wish to attend courses outside our field of study, please find out how the matter of external ERASMUS students is adressed in the field of study you want to take courses from. If they offer courses that can be taken up by external Erasmus students without prior permission of their departmental coordinator, you can have these signed on your Learning Agreement by our departmental coordinator. In this case please print the website (or any other confirmation) stating that it is possible to participate in the course in question without prior permission. Further detailed information on your learning agreement and course choice.

Other study-related confirmations

Should you need documents signed for your home university that include course-specific information e.g. language of instruction, please turn to your departmental coordinator. If this is not the case and the dates to be confirmed are the ones when you have registered or deregistered at the International Office of the University of Vienna or a confirmation of stay, please contact directly the International Office.

4. Course registration

Registration Deadlines

Course registration at our department usually starts at the beginning of September for the winter semester and at the beginning of February for the summer semester. You will be informed by e-mail about the end of the registration period, as well as receive information regarding the registration procedure. If a course registration is required is stated in each course's detailed course description on U:FIND.

During these registration periods the "first come, first served" principle does not apply.

Find detailed information on registration deadlines here.

It is not possible to attend any course without prior registration.

Course registration is done online. You do not have to be in Vienna in order to register for courses. The International Office will send you an email with your student ID number and the instructions on how to activate your u:account well before the start of the registration period.

Registration process

In order to register for a course, please follow the registration link in the course catalogue. It is provided in each course's detailed course description in the section "An/Abmeldung" (please note that this link is only active during the registration period!). Please choose [“Erasmus-Modul”] when asked for the module during registration. Further information on the registration process.

The registration is completed once your status in U:SPACE has changed to “angemeldet” ("registered") after the end of the registration period. The registration via U:SPACE is sufficient as you are allowed to follow all our courses, if you have been nominated for our field of study. If your status is listed as “vorgemerkt” (pre-registered) during the registration period, you can ignore this; your status will automatically be changed to “angemeldet” ("registered") after the registration has been closed. If this is not the case within three days after the end of the registration period, please contact your departmental coordinator. Please note that attendance during the first course session is obligatory. If you don't show up in the first session without an excuse, you might lose your place in the course.

If your status is “Warteliste” (waiting list), you were put on the course's waiting list. In this case please do go to the first course session in order to see whether you can obtain a place.

Deregistration

Should you decide to not to take part in a course after all, please deregister from the course via U:SPACE as soon as possible so that we can offer the place to another student. You find the deregistration deadlines in the course directory. Please also tell your course instructor about your deregistration. 

If you haven't deregistered in time, you get a negative grade for the course in your transcript of records.

5. Exams and Transcript of Records

In order to sit exams it is necessary to register for exams via U:SPACE. Registration for exams usually starts 1-3 weeks before the day of the exam.

Exam dates