University of Applied Arts Vienna

The University of Applied Arts Vienna, known locally as Die Angewandte, is an arts university in Vienna, the capital of Austria. It has held university status since 1970. The city is its seat, and the institution appears in the Austrian national register of higher education institutions in the category Universität, as a public institution.

The school began as the k. k. Kunstgewerbeschule, the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts, set up following the example of the South Kensington Museum in London (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) as a place of advanced education for designers and craftsmen. It was closely tied to the Austrian Museum of Art and Industry, today the MAK, and was the first school of its kind on the continent. It became an institution of higher education in 1941, was taken over by the Austrian state as an academy in 1948, and was awarded the title of a university in 1998, when it took the name Universität für angewandte Kunst.

Its staff and student body have included Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Koloman Moser, Vivienne Westwood, Karl Lagerfeld, Jil Sander, Pipilotti Rist and Stefan Sagmeister. The faculty includes artists and teachers such as Erwin Wurm, Hartmut Esslinger, Hani Rashid, Greg Lynn, Wolf D Prix and Peter Weibel. The university has around 1,800 students and about 380 faculty, with students from 70 countries across its 29 disciplines. Their work is made public in around 200 exhibitions a year, alongside other events and public presentations.

The register lists 33 programmes of all kinds and languages at the institution. Of these, 11 are English-taught degree programmes: 1 Bachelor's degree, 8 Master's degrees and 2 PhD or doctorate programmes. Subjects taught include arts, design and architecture, philosophy, business administration, industrial design, sustainable development, architecture and museum studies.

For an international student, the practical points matter. You apply direct to the institution, which sets its own application period and entrance procedure. Students from outside the EU and EEA need a Residence Permit, Student. At public universities, EU, EEA and Swiss students pay no tuition within the standard duration of study plus two semesters, while most other students pay a per-semester fee. Every student pays the student union fee.