Your perfect choice!
Term dates & deadlines
Winter semester 2023/24
General admission period for Bachelor’s degree programmes:
10 July 2023 to 5 September 2023
Summer semester 2024
General admission period for Bachelor’s degree programmes:
08 January 2024 to 05 February 2024
Why study Business Administration at the University of Klagenfurt?
Our student Michael has the answer to your question!
You are special. So are we.
This is what makes the degree programme so special
- Practical AND theoretical: Professionals in business administration don’t simply do stuff, but rather: they know exactly what to do. And they know that whatever they do leads to success. With the knowledge you learn here in Klagenfurt you will be state of the art, and can put what you have learned straight into practice. To give you a taste of the genuine business atmosphere while you are still studying, you can complete an internship – the hours will be credited as part of your studies!
- International setting: More young international people study at Klagenfurt University than at other universities. Spanish, Russian, English, Chinese – we offer a wide range of language classes to help you prepare for your career, wherever you choose to live and work.
- We will accompany you on your journey. Are you nervous about disappearing among the masses of students at a large university? That won’t happen to you here in Klagenfurt. For us you are not just one among many, you are special, even in our so-called “large-scale” degree programmes. We want to know who you are, what moves you and what you want to achieve. That’s why we offer very good supervision arrangements, small seminars and compact working groups.
Contact
Student Guidance Service
E-Mail: studieninfo [at] aau [dot] at
Office of the Programme Director
Website of the Programme Director
E-Mail: spl-abw [at] aau [dot] at
Student Representatives
Website of the Student Representatives
E-Mail: oeh [dot] abw [at] aau [dot] at
How we are seen
- We excel in rankings!
The University of Klagenfurt is one of the top 2 % universities worldwide.
(Times Higher Education World University Rankings) - We are distinguished by our students!
The University of Klagenfurt is the only university in the world to win a Global Student Satisfaction Award twice in a row
(Studyportals – the Global Study Choice Platform)
- Our study programmes come highly recommended!
The University of Klagenfurt is recommended by 97 % of its students.
(studycheck.de) - Top quality is our standard!
The University of Klagenfurt places high value on comprehensive quality standards. Our quality management is EVALAG-certified,
we maintain the highest environmental standards (EMAS certification) and are a family-friendly university.
(State quality label “hochschuleundfamilie”)
Focused studies. Our core topics
- Accounting: The performance of a company is expressed in figures. We introduce you to bookkeeping and financial accounting.
- Business Information Systems: In the era of digitalisation, the technical arms race has long since begun. Nowadays, a company’s success is largely determined on the basis of the best information systems. As a digital native you already have many advantages: We will teach you about the essential IT tools.
- Taxation: Companies want to operate in a “tax-friendly” way. Here in Klagenfurt you will learn the most important basics of business tax theory and tax law. For those who would like to work as a tax consultant at a later date, this degree programme offers those important first training steps.
- Controlling and Strategic Corporate Management: Just how well a company performs can be measured by a wealth of data. Controllers keep an eye on the key metrics and are therefore able to inform the decisions of corporate management.
- Corporate Finance: How can companies optimise their capital structure? What dividend policy should be pursued? How are decisions on investments made and how is the value of a company determined? In this area, you will receive answers to these questions and many more besides.
- Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship: Admittedly, there are those who get together with friends to tinker on a new product in their garage, make a pitch for a million-dollar investment and then triumph on the world market. To bring innovations to market, you also need luck. We will provide you with the knowledge you need to ensure your entrepreneurial fortune is lasting. In addition, we will show you how growing or established companies can embark on something new by innovating their business models or using new technologies and processes.
- Marketing and International Management: Products and services have to be marketed in order to ultimately find consumers – regionally as well as globally. We introduce you to market-oriented business management.
- Non-profit Management: Non-profit organisations should also be run profitably – to maximise environmental, human rights or educational benefits. We can show you what to pay particular attention to when dealing with NPOs.
- Human Resources, Management and Organisation: While flat hierarchies dominate in one company and people tend to be on familiar terms, at another, strict processes might help to ensure clear structures. Very often a company’s approach to its staff and the way it defines itself as an organisation is critical to its success. We can show you what human resources management is really all about.
- Production Management and Logistics: How do you deliver emergency supplies to disaster areas? What are the global networks that shape the production of goods? We take a closer look behind the global supply chains.
- Public Management: It’s not only private companies that need to be well managed, the public sector needs good managers too.
- Economics: In any given society, goods and factors of production are produced and distributed, but we, as human beings, also act “economically”, i.e. we generate benefits for the individual or for a community.
- Law: We will teach you the fundamentals of law that you will later use in your professional work in the business sphere.
- Sociology: The individual is not alone in the world. Neither can the economy be detached from society. Gain a deeper insight into our social behaviour.
Your skills are our mission. This is what we can teach you
We help you to acquire scientific skills, and you can use them to good effect. Business decisions often have far-reaching consequences: They determine the economic success of companies and public institutions – and ultimately affect people’s jobs. Those who make knowledge-based decisions have a clear advantage!
- Everything you need for the practical setting. Around 40 percent of our lecturers are highly successful in the professional field. What we offer is nothing out of this world, but rather we allow you to take flight.
- Triumph with soft skills. The world of work needs team players who can work creatively and purposefully, regardless of subjects and cultures. In our seminars you will learn how to boost inspiration and efficiency in group work. Here you will learn to become a moderator and manager of projects.
- Reaching for the sky after graduation. Many of our graduates enter professional life straight after their Bachelor’s degree. However, others are eager for more. At the University of Klagenfurt, we are able to offer you Master’s degree programmes, which are specially tailored to you: Applied Business Administration with the branches of study Energy and Environmental Management, Entrepreneurship and General Management, but also International Management (in English) and Media and Convergence Management (in English).
Best prospects. Your professional opportunities
- Versatile all-round talent with enhanced decision-making skills: The Bachelor’s degree in Applied Business Administration qualifies you to take on roles as a responsible, reflective and critical decision-maker and facilitator in the sphere of business.
- Create your own start-up: The degree programme equips you with all the tools you need to start your own business. Be your own boss and turn your business idea into reality!
- All things financial: Controlling and finance departments offer well-paid positions everywhere for those who enjoy working with numbers!
- Innovation Management: New things are good. But new things need fertile economic soil in order to flourish. You will emerge as an innovation expert who can successfully open up new business areas for expanding and established companies or deploy new technologies and processes.
- Taxation: Should you wish to pursue a career as a tax consultant, the Bachelor‘s degree in Applied Business Administration will serve as ideal starting point for your professional education.
- Human Resources Development: Headhunters, or so-called human resources managers, are often used in the race for the best brains.
- Marketing/Advertising: If customers do not perceive a desire to make a purchase, even the best product or the best service won’t be sold. We’ll transform you into a versatile marketing professional.
- Production and Logistics: What is produced and where? And how does it get from A to B – and ultimately to the customer? If you can keep a cool head and take well-founded decisions in the midst of the ever more complex global network, you too will join the corporate ranks of the high-flyers.
Programme structure
In Klagenfurt you can study at your own pace. To help you follow your path with confidence, we keep it clear of (bureaucratic) stumbling blocks and barriers. If you wish to reach your goal quickly and efficiently, we will always be there to support you. Our recommended course of study will guide you through the semesters. You work your way through the curriculum – making the most of opportunities to broaden your horizons and without wasting time. If you would like to know which courses await you before you start, take a look at the wide range of seminars and lectures.
Main areas
Programme structure: a tabular overview
Subject | Designation | ECTS credits |
---|---|---|
Required subjects (Pflichtfächer) |
Introductory orientation period (STEOP)
|
10 |
General Business Administration | 36 | |
Accounting | 16 | |
Economics | 16 | |
Fundamentals of Law
|
8 | |
Methods in the Social and Economic Sciences
|
16 | |
Sociology | 8 | |
Introduction to Gender Studies
|
1 | |
Business English
|
4 | |
Elective Subject I (Gebundenes Wahlfach I) | Choice of three subjects as specialisation (12 ECTS credits each)
|
36 |
Elective Subject II (Gebundenes Wahlfach II) | Choice of one subject as specialisation
|
12 |
Options (Freie Wahlfächer) | 9 | |
Bachelor’s thesis including an exclusive tutorial |
6+2 | |
Total ECTS credits |
180 |
Introductory orientation period (STEOP)
The introductory orientation phase grants students an overview of the key elements of the degree programme and of the course of studies ahead. Thus, it provides a factual basis for the personal evaluation of the choice of degree programme. The introductory orientation phase includes the courses “Introduction to Business Administration” (worth 4 ECTS credits), “Economics 1: Introduction to Economics” (worth 2 ECTS credits), and “Basic Principles of Public and Private Law” (worth 4 ECTS credits).
Practical training
Students are entitled to substitute free electives worth a total of 6 ECTS credits with relevant practical work experience. This must be assigned to the selected subject cluster (elective subject I). The placement must be completed within a span of 8 weeks (with a minimum of 20 hours per week). A written work experience report is a prerequisite for the successful completion of the placement.
Recommended course of study
1. Semester (Starting in the winter semester)
Subject | ECTS | Course number + title | Course type |
STEOP |
4 | 601.610 ABWL 1: Einführung in die Allgemeine Betriebswirtschaftslehre | VO |
2 | 607.100 VWL 1: Einführung in die VWL | VO | |
4 | 618.320 Grundbegriffe des öffentlichen Rechts und des Privatrechts | VO | |
Business Administration | 4 | 601.910 ABWL 3: Entrepreneurship & Innovation | VO |
4 | 602.804 ABWL 5: Public & Nonprofit Management | VO | |
4 | 601.690 ABWL 7: Einführung in die Produktion, Logistik und Beschaffung | VO | |
Accounting | 2 | 600.101 Externes Rechnungswesen I | VO |
4 | 601.641 (2,3,4,6)** Externes Rechnungswesen II | KS* | |
2 | 601.650 Internes Rechnungswesen I | VI | |
Total | 30 |
* compulsory attendance
** several courses are offered
Subject | ECTS | Course number + title | Course type |
Business Administration | 4 | 602.540 ABWL 2: Personal und Organisation | VO |
4 | 601.620 ABWL 6: Marketing Grundlagen | VO | |
2+2 | 601.660 + 601.661 (2,3,4,5)** Investition & Finanzierung | VO+KS* | |
Law | 4 | 618.350 Öffentliches Wirtschaftsrecht | VO |
Accounting | 4 | 601.647 Financial Accounting | VO |
4 | 601.651 (2,3,4)** Internes Rechnungswesen II | KS* | |
Economics | 6 | 607.130 (1,2,3)** Mikroökonomik | VC |
Total | 30 |
* compulsory attendance
** several courses are offered
Learning goals
Graduates will be/have: | Graduates will be able to: |
business knowledge | … explain the basic principles of business. |
an interdisciplinary mindset | … describe interdisciplinary relationships (e.g. business-economics, business-technology, business-law, business-sociology, etc.). |
skilled at solving business problems | … identify a business problem and select appropriate solutions/methods. |
Business English skills | … demonstrate the Business English skills required in today’s global economy. |
academic literacy | … research business problems by drawing on their academic skills. |
Limits are old news. What else can we offer you?
There are no limits to your personal development. Enjoy the freedom that only a university degree can offer you and expand your horizons beyond your academic studies. You can pick and choose which competences will set you apart in the world of work in the future. We have lots to offer, for instance:
- We are living in the age of digital transformation: The extension programme “Digital Skills” will equip you with the perfect amount of computer science knowledge needed for your professional career.
- Are you interested in collaborating in groups, teams and organisations to achieve the best possible results? In the extension programme “Social Competence and Organizational Learning SCOL“ we will show you how project and conflict management, mediation processes and moderation techniques can succeed.
- Do you want to learn a new language and prepare for an international career? You can learn Russian, Spanish or Chinese (and many other languages besides) at the University of Klagenfurt.
Continue to browse through this overview of all the elective subjects.
Admission
Admission to the degree programme must take place before the end of the general admission period (winter semester: 5 September | summer semester: 5 February).
A late admission until 31 October (winter semester) or 31 March (summer semester) can only be granted in exceptional circumstances.
Prerequisites
You do not have to go through a special admission procedure to start the Bachelor‘s degree in “Business Administration” in Klagenfurt. Simply enrol and get stuck in!
You only have to meet the following conditions, which also apply to all other programmes:
- General university entrance qualification (e.g. Matura)
- German language skills at level B2 (CEFR)
.
Prospective students who apply for admission to a German-language degree programme and whose first language is not German must provide evidence of German language proficiency no lower than level A2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) at the time of applicationGerman courses and exams are offered as part of the VAAU preparatory course by the Language Center German in Austria.
The first steps are always … accompanied!
We won’t abandon you, especially at the start of your studies!
- Here in Klagenfurt, you will get to know your fellow students during the Welcome Days – and you will make new friends in the very first week; friends you will share memorable experiences with in the years to come.
- You will never be a mere (matriculation) number here: Our courses have a limited number of participants and so our lecturers will soon get to know you. We encourage and challenge you, in every way you need!
- Your degree starts with the so-called “Introductory phase (STEOP)”. No matter which school you attended or which qualifications you bring with you to the university: We will get you to the level you need in order to study successfully in the semesters ahead. In addition, the technology preparation courses will help you to rapidly progress on the road to success in your studies!
The world is your own!
The Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration prepares you for a career in the international business arena. We will teach you the necessary knowledge of English as a business language. No matter whether you want to work in the management of a Carinthian company, or whether you are drawn to Amsterdam, Bangkok or Boston: This degree programme will give you the best possible preparation. Those who want to give their career an even stronger international focus can spend a semester abroad at one of Klagenfurt University’s approximately 250 partner universities. We have plenty of scholarships on offer to help you finance your semester abroad.
Continuing your studies
Once you have completed the Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration you can continue straight on to one of the following degree programmes. The choice is yours:
These Bachelor’s degree programmes may also be of interest
FAQ. Frequently asked questions
Is the degree programme in Business Administration the right one for me?
If you are interested in understanding the essence of entrepreneurial thinking and acting, why companies are successful and if you wish to gain a general idea of business management decisions in companies, then this degree programme is perfect for you. Ideally, you should have an interest in the economic developments around the world and a desire to help shape them at some point.
I completed commercial college (HAK) at secondary level: Can I get academic credit for subjects I took at school?
You can get credit for examinations taken in one of the extension subjects (which are not compulsory for the school leaving certificate).
Is it necessary to be good at mathematics in order to study business and economics?
When starting your studies, what is most important is your interest in and curiosity about the chosen field of study and subject. No previous knowledge is expected. We offer tutorials to accompany and support the compulsory courses in “Mathematics for Business and Economics”.
What job prospects do I have once I graduate?
This degree programme qualifies you to launch your career in many different corporate divisions or to become self-employed. Graduates who have completed this programme are particularly sought after in the areas of strategic corporate management, controlling, tax consultancy and auditing, internal auditing, human resources development, marketing and management consultancy.
How do I start my academic studies at the University of Klagenfurt?
Our check list will help you to get started. We have compiled everything you need to know here – from registering online right up to enrolling for a degree programme.

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