Welcome Reception for Incoming Students
On 12 October 2023, the International Office hosted its Welcome Reception for the new exchange students.
The official welcome and speeches took place in the historical Main Ceremonial Hall, followed by snacks and drinks in the Small Ceremonial Hall. Nearly 1,000 incoming students start their exchange semester at the University of Vienna every academic year. At the reception, representatives of the university officially welcomed them. Incoming exchange students participating in the Erasmus+ and the Non-EU Student Exchange Programme of the current semester were invited. Mobility coordinators, representatives of ESN - Erasmus Student Network at the University of Vienna and staff of the International Office responsible for student mobility were also present. With 300 students attending the reception, the invitation was very well received.
Impressions
The well-attended Ceremonial Hall shortly before the start of the event.
Vicerector Manuela Baccarini spoke kind words of welcome.
Karin Krall, head of the student mobility team (International Office of the University of Vienna) moderated the event.
Sandra Hindriks, who is a Mobility Coordinator at the Department of Art History, spoke about the many possibilities to experience art in Vienna.
James King, an incoming political science student from the University of Melbourne, told us about his experiences in Vienna so far.
A voting game on their mobile phones provided a fun end to the official part of the event.
A few fun facts for the current academic year
- This year's exchange students come from partner universities in 30 countries, but the students themselves are citizens of even more countries – namely 52 different ones in total.
- These are the top 5 countries of origin for our incoming students :
- Erasmus+: Germany (222), Italy (89), France (75), Netherlands (60), Spain (54)
- Non-EU Student Exchange Programme: USA, Japan, Australia, South Korea, China
- Students are enrolled in over 50 different fields of study, the biggest degree programme for our incoming students is Law, followed by International Business Administration and Economics, and German Studies on the third place.
- The Partner Universities that are sending the most students this year are: First and second place go to Humboldt Universität Berlin (23) and the University of Ljubljana (20), third place is shared by Eötvös Loránd University Budapest, the Freie Universität Berlin and the University of Warsaw (18 each).
- Around 60 incoming students come from partner universities within our Circle U. alliance, over 50 students from partner universities in the CENTRAL network.
- The shortest distance from their home university to the University of Vienna was travelled by students from Bratislava (55 km), the longest distance this year was travelled by Erasmus+ students from La Réunion (8610 km) and by students within the Non-EU Student Exchange Programme from Sydney, Australia (15,973.44 km).