WU@School
In the WU@School program, WU students visit schools as WU Ambassadors, telling kids about life at WU and their own experiences as a student, in the hope of awakening an interest in studying at WU.
School classes can also organize a Campus Visit to get an inside look at WU. Classes are given a tour of campus by one of our students, and are provided with information about academic programs and possible career options after graduation. Since 2016, schools can also book three different ‘pre-study’ workshops:
Meet the Prof: Students have the opportunity to meet and talk with a WU faculty member, who tells them about his or her research and teaching activities. Upon request they can also consult with students on school projects.
Meet the Alumni: WU graduates talk about their time at WU and their experiences in the workforce.
Academic writing: At this workshop, intended to help students prepare for writing pre-academic theses, a member of the library staff talks about basic literature research and citation rules. This workshop has been in very high demand since its introduction.
A total of 90 WU@School events took place in 2016 – 25 visits to schools by WU Ambassadors and 65 Campus Visits.
Open House Day
The video is currently only available in German
In March and for the first time also in December, WU invited high schoolers to the WU Open House Day. Lectures, sample classes, campus tours, and information booths gave visitors a realistic, behind-the-scenes look at studying at WU. Both events were a huge success: 1,675 potential students attended the Open House in March, and 1,045 in December.
Working Together with Teachers
In January, WU invited teachers and educational consultants from high schools and upper secondary vocational schools to an Information Day. The program included talks about WU’s academic programs, the admission process, the Mentoring@WU program, and career prospects for WU graduates. Campus tours were offered after the talks.
Making Transitions
The project ‘From high school to university’ goes one step further: In cooperation with several Vienna-area schools, we have developed a series of special workshops planned to be held as electives at the pilot schools starting in the fall of 2017. The workshops are intended to help prepare the participants for student life, and aim to give them a realistic idea of what it’s like to study at university and what skills are required. These courses are aimed particularly at high school students with disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds or faced with other challenges that often make it impossible to obtain higher education, even with high academic potential.
Women in Technology
The FIT (Frauen in der Technik) project has been in place for 15 years, and strives to encourage young high-school-age women to study and work in the fields of technology, technology-related areas, and science. WU participated in this program for the first time in 2016.
Female information systems students visited schools as FIT ambassadors, talking about their motivation to choose a technical field of study and their experiences with the information systems program.
WU offered three courses at the FIT Info Days in late January, a fair with seminars and workshops held at participating universities. High school students had the opportunity to try out being a web designer, project manager, or software developer to actively get first-hand information in the field of information systems.