Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt
The University of Klagenfurt (also Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, AAU) is a federal Austrian University and the largest research and higher education institution in the Austrian province of Carinthia. It has its main campus in Klagenfurt, with additional facilities in Austria’s two largest cities Vienna and Graz.
Efforts to found the University began in 1964, and succeeded in 1970, during the term of Governor Sima. Today, the University holds faculties of Humanities & Social Sciences, Management & Economics, Technology, and Interdisciplinary Studies.
The School of Interdisciplinary Studies (IFF) also runs departments in Vienna and Graz; the Dean of IFF, Verena Winiwarter, was elected Austrian “Scientist of the Year” 2013. In addition to the departments and units of the four faculties, the University also hosts a number of central facilities such as the Robert Musil Institute (co-organizer of the Bachmann Prize), the University Cultural Center (UNIKUM), the build! Gründerzentrum (a start-up facilitation center), the University Sports Center (USI), and the Klagenfurt University Library.
The incumbent President of the University is Oliver Vitouch, a cognitive psychologist and former faculty member of the University of Vienna and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. Norbert Frei chairs the Academic Senate, Robert Rebhahn the Board of Trustees.
Klagenfurt is the southernmost university in the German-speaking countries (followed by the University of Bern, Switzerland) and supports bi- and multilingualism, especially in the context of the Slovenian minority in Carinthia (the Carinthian Slovenes).