Global Networks

As a responsible university, it is important to us to be active in international networks and contribute our expertise. The intensive exchange with other renowned universities also helps up to see our own impact from a new perspective and to continue to grow and develop.

Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME)

PRME is an organization consisting of 60 universities. Since 2007, PRME has been acting as an international taskforce, developing a platform to foster responsible and sustainable practices in management education. WU defines itself as a responsible university and uses the six principles set out by PRME, which are based on the UN Global Compact, as points of orientation for its work. The principles offer guidelines for integrating sustainability and responsibility into the training provided to future executives. WU has already implemented these guidelines in a number of areas:

Teaching

WU’s goal is to teach its students about the social and ecological contexts and impacts of business activities. Graduates should have the expertise necessary to think and act sustainably.

Research

Many of WU’s institutes, research institutes, and competence centers deal with topics related to sustainability and social responsibility. They are involved in constant discourse with researchers, the media, and political decision makers. Knowledge generated by our research is of course also included into WU’s teaching, making it accessible to students.

Campus management

With its modern campus opened in 2013, WU sets new standards in green operations and workplace design. We are working hard to keep the university’s ecological footprint as small as possible, while maintaining a high-quality working and studying environment.

Networks

WU has a well-established network in the field of sustainability and contributes actively to academic and social discourse in this area.

The Global Alliance in Management Education (CEMS)

The CEMS network was established in 1989 by leading business and economics universities with the goal of providing students with the training and education they need to lead multinational and multicultural organizations. WU has been a member for 27 years.

The main element of the network is the Master in International Management degree program, available in Austria exclusively at WU. WU’s program is among the best worldwide: The Financial Times’ Global Masters in Management ranking lists it in 13^th place, and in the QS World University Business Masters Ranking, it comes in at 17^th place.

WU’s Master in International Management program is also regularly singled out as one of the best within the CEMS network itself. The CEMS Course of the Year Award 2017 went out to Christian Wagner (Institute for Finance, Banking and Insurance) for his course, “Multinational Financial Management,” and “Strategy as Practice – Critical Thinking, Problem Formulation, and Biases,’’ taught by Phillip C. Nell (WU) and Diego Stea (Copenhagen Business School), was selected as the year’s best block seminar.

The 2017 Career Forum was held in Budapest. 1100 students and alumni from 65 countries came together with over 360 representatives of 44 international companies. The program included 28 skill seminars and five career workshops, attended by 750 participants. There was also ample time for networking, and job seekers had the opportunity to make contact with potential employers at a total of 730 job interviews.

The University of Sydney hosted the 29^th Annual Events, culminating in the traditional commencement ceremony for all CEMS students graduating in 2017.

Partnership in International Management (PIM)

PIM is an association of 65 leading business and economics universities. Its goal is to foster student mobility between member schools. WU is the only Austrian university to belong to this exclusive network, and over 80% of the member schools are WU partner universities. Currently, approximately 50 of these universities offer exchange places to WU students on the master’s level. In the 2016/17 academic year, 257 WU students chose to go to a PIM member school on international exchange, and 281 incoming exchange students from PIM universities came to WU for a semester.

International Legal Network of Excellence (THEMIS)

The THEMIS network focuses on international business law and is a joint initiative of Ramon Llull University – ESADE in Barcelona, Freie Universität Berlin, Maastricht University, Singapore Management University, the Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, Milan, Université Paris-Est Créteil Val de Marne, and the University of St. Gallen. All of these schools offer the THEMIS Certificate in International and Business Law program, which consists of three parts: an exchange semester abroad, an internship, and a seminar. WU has been a partner in the THEMIS network since 2015. The first eight WU students participated in the THEMIS exchange program in the 2016/17 winter semester, and in the 2017/18 winter semester, 12 students had the opportunity to study at THEMIS partner schools. WU hosted eight incoming exchange students from five partner universities during this time.

In the spring of 2017, 62 students from five partner universities came to WU to attend the THEMIS seminar “Europe – A Union of the people.”

The Central European Exchange Program for University Studies (CEEPUS)

The Central European Exchange Program for University Studies (CEEPUS) promotes student and faculty mobility in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. WU coordinates the AMADEUS network and is a partner in the REDENE network. The AMADEUS network, one of the largest CEEPUS networks, was founded in the 1994/95 academic year and consists of 14 partner schools in 12 countries. In 2016/17, CEEPUS gave 30 students from Central and Eastern Europe the opportunity to spend an exchange semester at WU, and six guest lecturers came to Vienna to share their expertise with WU’s students.

Austria-Illinois Exchange Program

WU has a particularly intensive exchange program with the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. This cooperation gives WU students the opportunity to spend a semester in the USA at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Currently, 12 places per semester are available at the College of Business and ten at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. In return, large groups of students from Illinois come to Vienna to spend a semester at WU very year.

In May, the course “Negotiating Internationally,” which is attended by students from both universities, was held on Campus WU. 13 WU students were in attendance. The two schools also agreed to strengthen their exchange agreement in the field of economics. These initiatives were funded in part by the Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility program.

Network for European and US Regional and Urban Studies (NEURUS)

As a member of the Network for European and US Regional and Urban Studies (NEURUS), WU cooperates with partner schools in the field of urban and regional development. The program gives students the opportunity to spend a semester as a NEURUS Exchange Fellow, conducting research for their master’s or doctoral thesis at one of the partner universities. In 2017, WU hosted the NEURUS Continental Seminar.

Global Business School Network (GBSN)

GBSN is a group of outstanding business and economics universities with the common goal of building up a solid, local management education network in developing countries. International experts are on board to help achieve this goal. WU contributes actively to this initiative, and offered scholarships for high-potential students from GBSN partner schools in developing countries in 2017. Four young women from Africa and China were selected to receive the scholarships to attend the International Summer University^WU.

Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI)

WU is an active member of GRLI, which consists of 50 organizations (eleven corporations, 36 educational institutions, and three international organizations). The goal of the initiative is to foster responsible leadership worldwide, and to establish principles of responsible leadership in organizations and society as a whole.

Societal Impact and Global Management Alliance (SIGMA)

SIGMA is an association of nine universities with a strong focus on social sciences. The goal is to strengthen the cooperation between outstanding universities who take an integrated approach to research and teaching. Aside from WU, the following schools are members of SIGMA: ESADE Business School, Fundacao Getulio Vargas, Hitotsubashi University, Renmin University of China, Singapore Management University, Université Paris-Dauphine, and the University of St. Gallen.