The Wegener Center is the only university institute in Austria that places climate and climate change at the core of its research and teaching activities. We contribute to various Bachelor and Master programmes and teach fundamentals, applications and current research topics in all aspects of climate change.
Our teaching is held by leading experts in their respective research fields who are active in national and international research bodies and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The number of students is usually not that high, so that contact with the lecturers is direct and personal. In free electives, you can shape your personal profile and deepen your knowledge or broaden your view of other topics relevant to climate research.
These degree programmes prepare you both for non-university professions and for a career in climate research. And even before you graduate, there are very good opportunities for (paid) Master's theses and dissertations within the framework of internationally networked climate research projects directly at the Wegener Center.
Understand the climate system and the associated risks of climate change for ecosystems and society and work on the transformation towards a carbon-neutral and climate-resilient society. Find out more!
Bachelor programmes
This bachelor’s programme combines the natural science disciplines of chemistry, physics and earth sciences with the environmental and systems sciences, thus offering you a broad-based, interdisciplinary education. Its content can be tailored precisely to suit your own interests within the various fields.
What makes this bachelor's programme unique is the environmentally focused and interdisciplinary approach it takes to economic questions. The study programme can also be tailored easily to your personal interests.
Master programmes
Our interdisciplinary Master's programme is unique in that you can choose a clear focus in either natural or social sciences, but at the same time learn to collaborate across disciplinary boundaries, to understand each others research problems and approaches. You develop an interdisciplinary community of practice which is essential to succeed in the complex field of climate change and social transformation.
This Master’s programme provides you with an interdisciplinary approach to topical questions connected with climate change and its consequences. You can also adapt the study programme easily to suit your personal interests.
The wide spectrum of disciplines on the one hand is challenging, on the other hand provides a variety of options to tackle problems and to develop improved strategies and solutions. This is what distinguishes the master's programme.
What makes this study programme unique is the combination of sustainability and innovation management topics.
The distinctive characteristic of this master’s programme is its interdisciplinary approach to the course content, with modules provided by several different faculties, and its critical engagement with the economic and ecological issues of today.
This programme has an international and interdisciplinary focus. The programme is offered jointly with our partner universities in Utrecht, Leipzig, Venice and Hiroshima, which means you can gain international experience and enhance your research profile.
CIRCLE is an English-language master’s programme with the advantage of outstanding collaborative arrangements with higher education institutions in the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Australia, China and Japan. The study programme has a distinctively international character, including study periods at two or more different universities, and allows you to develop your own area of specialisation.
What makes the PELP study programme unique is its interdisciplinary nature. Combining theory with practice, issues concerning politics, economics and law are addressed and scrutinised from a philosophical angle. This study programme can also be taken wholly in English, as well as offered as a double degree in cooperation with Ruhr University Bochum.
Even more future? With the new master’s modules, you can turn your master’s programme into a Master’s Plus. To be exact, this means that in two semesters you can work intensively on a future topic of your choice – be it communications, digitalization, media, entrepreneurship or pecebuilding and climate change.
You are not studying a relevant subject, but want to understand climate change and its social consequences? Then the Master's module in Climate Change and Sustainable Transformation is just the right additional qualification for you! It offers you a scientifically based additional training that prepares you for a green job, no matter in which field – economic, legal, financial, social or creative.
