Annual Report 2021

The Bachelor’s program in Corporate Communication and the Master’s program in Communication Management both received two awards. The Public Relations Association Austria (PRVA) awarded both programs the distinction “PRVA-approved” once more and the International Advertising Association (IAA) awarded them its “IAA-Approved” quality seal.

The COVID-19 survey of the City of Vienna Competence Team for the Digitalization of Communication entered the second round with a survey of students and lecturers on distance learning. Special attention was paid to the topic of “e-assessment”. The paper on the subject was presented by Jasmin Séra at the EADTU I-HE Conference in November 2021. Furthermore, the head of the team, Georg Feldmann, gave a digital outlook for the time after corona. Senior Researcher Uta Rußmann was appointed to the PR Ethics Council.

Events were held in the tried-and-tested online format. The renowned geneticist Markus Hengstschläger accepted the invitation to hold the keynote speech. He talked about “Solution talent as an innovation driver“. The Digital Impact Night held in May focused on sustainability and start-up communication. The series on Growth Hacking looked at what is behind the marketing buzzword that has its origins in the start-up scene.

Despite the sometimes challenging circumstances, the practical projects carried out in cooperation with Jugend am Werk, Österreichische Bundesbahnen and WEMOVE RUNNINGSTORE were completed successfully thanks to the extreme flexibility and immense dedication of the students, lecturers and clients.

In 2021, work at the Department of Digital Economy at FHWien der WKW and its study programs focused on four main tasks:

Developing the team. Without qualified and motivated colleagues, it is hard to get anything done at a university. At the same time, practically every field and every industry is looking for digital technology and transformation professionals. We are therefore all the more pleased that in 2021 the team at the department increased from four to eight full-time colleagues who are supported by a growing number of external lecturers.

Expanding the Bachelor’s study program. In fall 2019 the range of study programs at FHWien der WKW was expanded with a part-time Bachelor’s program in Digital Business. It trains future executives at the interface of digital technology, management and communication. We will celebrate the first graduations in 2022. In 2021 FHWien der WKW was granted federal funding for an additional 51 places for this Bachelor’s program following a highly competitive process.

Preparing the Master’s study program in Digital Innovation Engineering. In 2020 we were given a commitment for 40 federally funded places on the planned Master’s program in Digital Innovation Engineering. This part-time study program deals with the creative use of digital technologies for the agile development of innovative business processes and products. The application for accreditation was submitted to AQ Austria at the end of 2021. The new study program is scheduled to begin in fall 2022.

Founding the Institute for Digital Transformation and Strategy (IDS). In the first half of 2021 a research institute was set up at the Department of Digital Economy that focuses its research on topics very similar to those taught in the study programs. By the end of the year, the IDS had already published a number of papers and, in addition to participating in smaller research projects, had acquired two medium-sized, multi-year third-party funded projects.

In 2021, digitalization remained a key focus area of the Financial Management study programs as nowadays it plays an important role in finance, accounting and taxation as well as in financial management and controlling. Our science-based academic program that nevertheless has a strong practical focus systematically integrates this development into our teaching and thus provides ideal preparation for a successful career in financial management.

The internationalization of our teaching activities also continued to be an important area of work, with students reaping the benefits in courses such as “Special Issues in International Accounting” and “Economics”.

In the area of project management and corporate projects existing partnerships were continued, and new and exciting projects added in the field of tax law in cooperation with an international consulting firm and in the field of accounting in cooperation with a real estate company.

Teaching activities continued to be severely affected by the corona crisis in 2021. Courses were held in a combination of classroom teaching and distance learning so that we could react flexibly to the changing situation and lockdowns. In addition, increased use was made of modern didactic tools.

The focus in 2021 was on teaching, research and day-to-day collaboration managing the pandemic and digitalization. This was also reflected in the Bachelor’s and Master’s theses which were dominated by the following topics.

• Digitalization & new worlds of work and learning environments
• Occupational health management
• Coaching as a management tool
• Generation management
• Sustainability in human resources management

Our annual practical projects also addressed these issues. For example, the third-semester Master’s students developed concepts for employee retention in times of crisis on behalf of our cooperation partner TUI. The fourth-semester Bachelor’s students developed ideas and concepts for successful virtual collaboration in the international HR community for T-Systems, one of the world’s leading providers of digital services. In a practice-based research study, they also investigated how the world of work will change after the pandemic.

We also continued teaching activities very successfully in this extraordinary year: innovative concepts for online teaching were expanded and international partnerships continued smoothly in the virtual realm. This was made possible by the immense dedication and strong didactic-methodological competence of our teaching staff, the continuing support by the Competence Center for E-Learning, and our students’ openness and ability to cooperate.

In 2021 the pandemic situation became the new normal. Flexibility and solution-oriented approaches became more important than ever. And although travel was restricted in 2021, a number of International Weeks still took place in either a physical or hybrid format. Mostly, however, conferences that had been planned as events with physical attendance were once more held in a purely digital space, as was the case with the annual EJTA Teachers’ Conference, which in 2021 focused on data journalism. Students and teachers alike were thus able to experience more face-to-face contact in some phases of the pandemic and less in others.  At any rate, the setting was always exciting and it also became clear that things were not much different in the professional environment.

Plan A is good, but Plan B is not bad either. Since some projects could not be realized on site, the Journalism & Multimedia study programs organized an Online-Workshop on Multimedia Storytelling within the framework of the International School for Multimedia Journalism (ISMJ) in order to prepare the ISMJ planned for July 2022 together with students and teachers of the international partner universities. The Public Value Lecture series was also continued in cooperation with the ORF Competence Centre. The fifth edition focused on digitalization and the development of new formats at ORF.

The third FHWien der WKW Journalism Young Talent Award  again attracted some exciting entries. However, students and staff also excelled in other competitions.  Radio Radieschen host Johanna Hirzberger not only received a nomination for the Prix Europe, she was also awarded the Prelate Leopold Ungar Recognition Prize for her radio feature on key workers.

Incidentally, have you noticed? Our in-house training station has been renamed and is now called Radio Radieschen 91.3 – in keeping with the motto “Radio to my taste”. Information about everything else that has been going on in our study programs and the practical projects that have been completed can be found in the online magazine “Journalismus studieren“.

The Management & Entrepreneurship study programs prepare students in both the Bachelor’s and Master’s programs for future management roles at different levels. The study and teaching activities on our programs therefore all have a very high level of practical relevance.

In addition to the field projects carried out on behalf of clients in the general modules, the study programs also introduced practical projects in the specialization modules as of summer semester 2020. Assignments on digitally supported corporate controlling, realistic case studies involving family-run businesses, analyzing the status quo or developing new corporate strategies for established enterprises help students put what they have learned into practice.

Conditions remained difficult in 2021 due to the pandemic, but lecturers and students alike responded with creativity, dedication, innovative teaching concepts and exam settings. In doing so, they demonstrated the solution-oriented approach that is such a strong feature of our study programs. Some of these new elements could be described as “having come to stay.”

In addition to a greater emphasis on promoting aspects of responsible management in classroom teaching, the focus has now also been placed on sustainability in the Bachelor’s and Master’s theses. The increasing number of students choosing to focus on these issues is also no doubt attributable to the competitive nature of the SDG Day Awards for the best work on sustainability topics.

The Bachelor’s program in Marketing & Sales and the Master’s program in Marketing & Sales Management both received the quality seal “IAA-Approved“ from the International Advertising Association (IAA) for the high quality of education they offer. In addition, cooperation with the IAA was deepened with new offers for students.

The Web Analytics Lab has expanded its capacities with two fully-equipped devices for eye-tracking, galvanic skin response measurement and face recognition. The use of these devices in biometric sales coaching has now been officially recognized by the international scientific community with a paper in the Journal of Selling. David Bourdin presented the results of his research on brand perception and country stereotypes in the Journal of Business Research. He was also invited to talk about his work at the conference of the American Marketing Association (AMA).

In his sales keynote in November, Jayesh Controllu, Vice President – Client Engagement Executive at Intellect Design Arena Ltd., provided in-depth insights into Key Account Management in the fin-tech industry. The series of articles on “Search Marketing“ shed light on SEO, SEA and the like.

Despite the online format, the practical projects with Wienerberger AG and Schönbrunn Zoo were completed successfully. This was down to the high level of flexibility and dedication on part of the students, teaching staff and clients. 2021 also saw the beginning of the practical project with the BUWOG Group GmbH, which commissioned students on the Master’s program in Marketing & Sales Management to carry out a website analysis using the Web Analytics Lab. Master’s student Tarik Juhic was awarded an excellent second place in the European Sales Competition. And for the first time, Marina Prem took part in the competition not just as a sales coach but as a member of the jury.

In 2021 our research and teaching activities intensified their focus on sustainability in the real estate industry. For example, the requirements of the EU Taxonomy Regulation were incorporated into teaching. The property developers of tomorrow are now required to document environmental, social and governance activities in their daily project work. Although not all relevant requirements are clear yet, we can make a valuable contribution here in discussions with our students and colleagues in the industry.

We therefore want to put the study programs on a broader footing and expand our research activities on sustainability in the real estate industry. In specific terms, this will be done by setting up a chair in circular economy that will be funded by the private sector. Following promising talks with a cooperation partner, we expect to implement these plans in 2022.

Our practice-led research on energy certification in light of EU requirements was completed in 2021 and submitted to the GIF – Society of Property Researchers for review.

The real estate development project carried out by students on our Master’s program produced imaginative presentations that took sustainability criteria into account and not just architecture, the interests of the users and profitability. The property owner was very pleased with the concepts that were developed.

The Master’s theses also explored the topics of sustainability and digitalization, e.g., the tokenization of real estate.

In the field of urban development, changes in urban areas are impacting communication between residents, commerce and the townscape. These trends were discussed at the Illmitzer Gespräche. The expectations investors have in this regard were the topic of the panel discussion hosted by Regioplan.

After a delay due to corona, a Master’s student was able to spend two months in Brussels with our cooperation partner CEPI and complete an internship supported by Erasmus and the industry.

The assessment that 2020 and 2021 would prove to be fateful years for tourism has proved to be true. At the same time, the realization is dawning that the pandemic, unlike other crises of the past decades, will lead to lasting change in the tourism industry. There are signs of a rethink towards more responsible tourism – tourism that does not prioritize the needs of the guests over the desire of local populations for an intact living space. We are taking up this challenge.

After intensive preparations, the Master’s program in Urban Tourism & Visitor Economy Management started in 2021. Students from 15 nations are preparing for the urban tourism of the future. They will be in a position to support the imminent transformation of the tourism industry in an expert capacity.

Happily, we were able to experience a little internationality again in 2021: Claudia Szivatz-Spatt and Daniela Wagner joined forces with Heilbronn University to implement a COIL project (COIL stands for Collaborative Online International Learning). The same student cohort was also able to go on the International Field Trip to Italy. True to the motto of Cuisine & Sustainability, 14 Master’s students spent a week in the Italian regions of Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto.

The excellent performance of our students in the Best Meeting Thesis competition organized by the Austrian Convention Bureau has become something of a tradition. In 2021 our study programs boasted two proud winners. Nabila Ashri won a prize for her Master’s thesis and Melanie Hutterer for her Bachelor’s thesis. Two of our valued colleagues, Klaus Fritz and Jürgen Weiß, received FHWien der WKW’s teaching prize in the category “Sustainable Development Goals in Teaching“. They had integrated the Sustainable Development Goals into the course “Tourism Macroeconomics” in an exemplary fashion.

In 2021, the second year that was dominated by COVID-19, FHWien der WKW not only continued its academic continuing education programs in the usual high quality, the university of applied sciences also used the prevailing dynamics to prepare a “Year of Innovations 2022“. In the area of Academic Continuing Education some 800 students were enrolled in 15 different programs. To date almost 1,900 students have completed one of these programs at FHWien der WKW.

A strategy for integrating changing market needs into product development was drawn up. The Business Plan 2025 serves as a binding steering and communication tool. It optimally prepares the academic continuing education programs of FHWien der WKW for the future and is the basis for building on the success achieved to date.

The amendment of the Universities of Applied Sciences Act in 2021 necessitated a reorganization of the continuing education programs. FHWien der WKW seized the opportunity afforded by this far-reaching amendment and developed the Master (CE) in International Sustainability Communication in accordance with the new regulations. In addition, we expanded our portfolio with the one-year program IT and Management focusing on technology and digitalization.

The successful establishment of the focus Sustainable Finance Management in 2021 laid the foundation for further program developments.

To strengthen the positioning of our continuing education programs, we adopted a completely new approach and established a new brand. Preparations were made for the transition from the Center for Academic Continuing Education to the new Vienna Management Academy by FHWien der WKW, and a logo was developed that is consistent with the umbrella brand. The claim “From good to great” highlights continuing development, the importance of university degrees as career boosters and the added value theoretical knowledge gives to practical experience.