Annual Report 2022

There was a clear focus on these two key areas in 2022, on the one hand as integrative elements while we updated our curricula and on the other as areas of special emphasis in our existing teaching activities.

Early in the year, students presented the communication concepts they had developed to generate donations and improve internal communication in the business field projects with the CliniClowns and CRS respectively. In fall, Katharina Lin won the first SDG Award with her Bachelor’s thesis on media stereotypes and their impact on ethnic minorities; the case study on the UNICEF Children’s Rights School won the SDG Teaching Award.

Digitalization and integrated communication were at the forefront of activities in summer semester. In the business field projects with VGN Medienholding, students on the Master’s program found a way to incorporate the Metaverse in the communication strategy. In the Bachelor’s program, students delighted Procter & Gamble with their innovative concepts for a product launch. They also demonstrated their ability to think from a 360° perspective at Digital Impact Night. At the end of June, Gerfried Stocker, Artistic Director of Ars Electronica, provided insights into digitalization from a completely different perspective in his Keynote on Digital Humanism.

Students on the Bachelor’s program took up an exciting challenge in the winter semester. In the business field project with Seestadt Aspern they designed concepts for a unique series of events to strengthen the identity of Seestadt. They also took on the challenge of developing B2B campaigns to bring some fresh air into the ice-cream business for AGRANA.

In late 2022, our research team welcomed their new colleague, Marian Adolf. The communication expert was then promptly invited to give an interview on moral outrage in digital media for the ORF program KulturMontag.

Developing the Team. In 2022 we were pleased to welcome three new colleagues to the Department of Digital Economy. By the end of the year, we were working as a personally and professionally diverse team of eleven, supported by a growing number of external teaching staff from the business world and international partner universities.

Bachelor’s Program in Digital Business. In fall 2019 – and thus six months before the outbreak of the Covid pandemic in Austria – the Bachelor’s program in Digital Business was launched at FHWien der WKW. On the program we train future executives at the interface of digital technology, management and communication. Three years later, in fall 2022, we celebrated the program’s first graduation ceremony – happily, no longer with significant restrictions due to Covid.

The use of digital tools in teaching became something we took for granted during the pandemic. At the same time, our appreciation of face-to-face contact at university increased significantly. As a result, 60% of our teaching now takes place online and 40% on the FHWien der WKW campus.

Institute for Digital Transformation and Strategy (IDS). The research activities of the Department of Digital Economy are concentrated at the Institute for Digital Transformation and Strategy founded in 2021. At the end of 2022, work was already underway on four third-party funded projects with a total volume of 885,000 euros. The thematic focuses are digitalized logistics and organizational ambidexterity.

In 2022, 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.

The impact of the Covid crisis on study programs steadily diminished in 2022. While at the beginning of the year, there was still a mix of face-to-face teaching and distance learning, from fall onwards most classes were again held on campus, although a certain amount of online teaching was maintained. Here, increased use was made of modern didactic tools.

In 2022 the curricula for the Bachelor’s and the Master’s programs were also overhauled and then approved by the Academic Board. The new curricula will come into force in winter semester 2023/24.

The focus in 2022 was quite clearly on returning to the “new normal” after Covid-19. Starting in the winter semester, most classes were again held on campus, as was the graduation ceremony for our graduates in October. Participation in conferences, meetings to exchange ideas and application-oriented research activities also returned to “face-to-face” mode. The presentation of outstanding final theses by our Bachelor’s students at the HR Inside Summit held at the Vienna Hofburg in September is a case in point. This prestigious conference also provided our Master’s students with a venue to present their findings on “hybrid working”.

The return to the classroom and face-to-face contact between teachers and students was especially enriching. Yet virtual and hybrid teaching formats were not completely abandoned. The percentage of online classes in the winter semester was around 40% – accurately reflecting real-world HR which continues to be challenged by digitalization, and hybrid work and learning.

The year 2022 was marked by the development of new curricula for the Bachelor’s and Master’s programs which will come into force in fall 2023. The new curricula were designed in close consultation with academics and practitioners. Topics such as digitalization in personnel management, occupational health management, sustainability and self-organization in a corporate setting are now more firmly embedded in the course content. Success formulas such as the trainer certificate in the Bachelor’s program and the coaching training in the Master’s program have been retained and, in some areas, expanded. This ensures that the employability of our graduates remains high!

Driven by a desire for innovation, a new compact training course HR in Tourism was developed that will transfer HR expertise to the tourism industry from June 2023.

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the study program team, external teaching staff and cooperation partners for their contribution to making 2022 such a successful year!

2022 will go down in history not just as the year in which war returned to Europe, but also as a year of media scandals. As well as the new, but sadly familiar, influence of fake news and (inter-) national attempts to influence journalists, the media was full of reports about chat affairs – unfortunately, sometimes involving members of the fourth estate itself.

This again highlighted just how important it is that we as a training institution concentrate on teaching core journalistic skills. Adapting these to the digital age is a major challenge, which our team of external and internal lecturers devoted themselves to with immense dedication in 2022.

Check, Re-Check, Double-Check

In addition to their classroom activities, students were able to benefit on multiple occasions from partnerships and business field projects, including the “faktiv” fact-check project of the news magazine profil, producing fact-check videos in cooperation with the ZIB Social Media Team of ORF, internationally at EUfactcheck in cooperation with European journalism schools and also within the framework of an Atelier with the media watch blog KOBUK.

Credibility Between the Conflicting Worlds of the Media and Politics

Research at the study programs also focused on journalistic integrity, examining issues such as the impacts of the corruption scandal in Austria known as the advertising affair, which involved adverts being placed in print media in exchange for influence on editorial content. Research results were presented at conferences, including the Protagoras Symposium on Surveys as a Means of Political Legitimacy, the RIPE Conference and ECREA 2022. In addition, the Public Value Lectures in Cooperation with ORF were continued while participation in the Dataharvest investigative journalism conference provided insights into the current challenges facing data journalism. 

Busy Summer Months

A wide range of real-world projects were again realized in 2022: In June, the international radio project “EU on Air” on Global Warming in Urban Spaces took place, followed in July by the seventh International School of Multimedia Journalism – this year, against the background of the war in Ukraine, on the topic of Media under Pressure. The participants of the continuing education Sports Journalism Workshop were given exclusive insights into the everyday work of sports journalists and for the first time the Journalism Young Talent Award of FHWien der WKW was also opened up to young journalists who did not study at FHWien der WKW.

The Management & Entrepreneurship study programs prepare students in both the Bachelor’s and the Master’s program at various levels for future leadership roles. The programs’ very high level of practical relevance is underlined by activities such as drawing up business plans, realistic assignments in the specialization modules and by business field projects commissioned by external companies and organizations.

The range of topics in 2022 again covered the entire portfolio of entrepreneurial activities. One of the highlights during the year was the business field project with the Austrian Red Cross, in which an entire cohort grappled with the strategic direction of the Austrian Youth Red Cross (ÖJRK) as part of a specialization module.

A number of new corporate partnerships concluded in the year under review also impressively demonstrated the interest from the business world in our students and graduates.

A major focus in 2022 concerned the revision of the curricula, which will be implemented in winter semester 2023/2024. With the comprehensive involvement of the relevant stakeholders, specialization modules in the Bachelor’s program were realigned, a wide range of bridging courses implemented in the first semester of the Master’s program and a stronger focus placed on the topics of digitalization, internationalization, sustainable management and responsible management.

In 2022 there was a particular focus on marketing ethics and sustainable management. Thus, Senior Researcher David Bourdin gave a guest lecture at the Universidade Europeia in Portugal on ethical challenges in marketing, based on his book chapter in the new edition of the “Handbuch Wirtschaftsethik”. He also published the results of his Study on Ratio Bias, exploring the subjective, distorted perception of numbers and probabilities, in the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making. Using this work as the basis for further analysis, he shed light on how the results of the study can be used for marketing purposes, for example in sustainabilty communication, and presented his findings at the AMA Conference. Ilona Pezenka presented her study on the impact of different fundraising appeals in NGO commercials at the 15th Research Forum of Austrian Universities of Applied Sciences.

The business field project with the BUWOG Group GmbH was all about digitalization. Our Master’s students analyzed the microsites of three prestigious Viennese properties via the Web Analytics Lab and then created high-impact campaigns for an online presence on the pulse of the digital age. In the business field project commissioned by the Austrian Soccer League, our Master’s students delivered wide-ranging ideas for campaigns to encourage new spectators to visit stadia by making the experience more attractive for different target groups.

We are delighted that our graduate Melanie Karlinger was awarded an excellent second place in the edcom Graduation Competition for her Master’s thesis on impulse buying in online retailing.

The Real Estate Management programs prepare students on both the Bachelor’s and the Master’s program for professional practice as real estate trustees: on the Bachelor’s program as real estate agents and property managers, on the Master’s program as property developers. All courses take account of changes to the regulatory framework in which professionals operate, e.g., in 2022, the principle that whoever hires an estate agent should pay the agent’s fees and also the amendment to the Condominium Act, which provides for new owner majorities in connection with measures such as the installation of electric charging stations. EU sustainability requirements for the development of real estate projects and refurbishments were also dealt with. One highlight of the Master’s program was the development of a project for a partner in Floridsdorf.

Working together in groups again after the pandemic was a liberating experience for our students and one which is important for them as they prepare for management roles in their future careers.

The recognition given to our graduate Karina Schunker MA in the form of the Alumni Award, was as gratifying for her as it was for the study programs and her company. This shows that studying alongside work can quite quickly lead to remarkable success – which is why we recommend working full time while studying, notwithstanding the challenges involved.

The year also saw the acquisition of an additional site for parts of FHWien der WKW – this was completed before the summer. Updating the curricula formed another important focus, with stakeholder experiences and topics such as sustainability and digitalization being incorporated. Furthermore, new business partnerships were formed and new mentors and lecturers recruited.

In 2022 we began taking our students on monthly visits to construction sites or development projects, giving them the opportunity to experience at first hand what they have learned in the classroom.

Contact with the universities in Lucerne, Zurich, Berlin and Nürtingen-Geislingen was intensified, and we also made contact with a university in Antwerp. In addition, we prepared an International Week.

Rethinking tourism – this was the motto during the pandemic. Tourism figures in 2022 rapidly returned to their pre-crisis levels and yet in many places it feels as if there is little willingness to change. At the same time, the industry now finds itself facing new challenges: The high cost of energy, a fragile geopolitical situation and the aftermath of Covid-19 in some countries continue to affect international tourism. Staff shortages were the dominant issue in 2022 and this will not change for a long time to come.

The defining event for us last year was the reform of the curriculum for the Bachelor’s program in Tourism Management. Greater emphasis is now placed on topics such as sustainability and digitalization, thus bringing core aspects of tourism development into the training. The way we integrate theory and practice is indeed groundbreaking. In 2023 we became Austria’s first university of applied sciences to offer a dual degree program in tourism management, and thus continue to make an important contribution to training skilled workers and managers for the Austrian tourism industry.

Despite the strong focus on the future, we have not lost sight of the present. We have created a platform to honor the outstanding academic achievements of our students in the form of the TM Excellence Club. In 2022, the Austrian Convention Bureau once again chose one of our graduates, Loredana Bartl, as the recipient of its award, in this case, for her Bachelor’s thesis. Three lecturers from our study programs also took home an Award for Innovative Teaching at FHWien der WKW in 2022.

In 2022 the number of active students in academic continuing education programs rose to a new record of approximately 900, enrolled in 18 different programs. To date, some 2,600 students have completed one of these programs at FHWien der WKW.

To ensure that the growth strategy pursued so successfully in the past is continued in years to come, the development of a Bachelor’s program in Insurance Management and a Master’s program in the field of digital and data journalism was initiated. In addition, sector-specific programs with a duration of around one semester were created for the first time in the form of two compact training courses in HR in Tourismus and in Digital Transformation in the Media Industry.

Half of the newly developed programs are in-house academic training programs for companies. The  potential of these in-house training programs as a growth market for the Vienna Management Academy was corroborated by the successful implementation of five short programs in Sustainable Finance Management.

Another milestone in 2022 was the adoption of a strategy to adapt the curricula of our continuing education programs to comply with the amendment to the Universities of Applied Sciences Act.

Several structural projects were also implemented in the year under review to ensure organizational efficiency. In this context, the further development of processes, the relocation of the Vienna Management Academy to the campus on Währinger Straße and organizational adjustments were of crucial importance. The role of Academic Coordinators was established and the Vienna Management Academy’s program management was integrated into FHWien der WKW’s Study Services. As a result, the digitalization projects centrally managed for the university as a whole will bring about improvements in the efficiency and quality of the administration.