Potential Students

In 1963 the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS) was founded as a private non-profit organization by Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Oskar Morgenstern with support from the Ford Foundation, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, and the City of Vienna, in order to provide an international and interdisciplinary meeting place for theoretical and empirical researchers in economics and the social sciences. From its very beginnings, the IHS has operated on the principle that scientific enterprises, scientific co-operation and scientific problem solutions offer a platform for critical discussions, an opportunity for consensus formation, and an open and interdisciplinary arena for scientific research and critical scientific expertise.

Austria’s first postgraduate research and education institution, the Institute for Advanced Studies trains highly qualified young scientists and managers. Young graduates can obtain further qualifications in economics and the social sciences from internationally renowned visiting professors. Those working at the Institute are given the opportunity to work in a broad and varied field and also to take part in projects outside their own areas of study.

The IHS offers the following academic programs for university graduates that lead to a diploma:

1. MSc Economics (Eco/Fin) 2 years
2. Comparative Sociology (Sociology) 3 years
3. European Studies (Political Science) 3 years

Since 2005 the IHS participates in the Vienna Graduate School of Finance (VGSF), a new 4-year PhD program in cooperation with the University of Vienna and the University of Economics and Business Administration.

The Vienna Graduate School of Economics (VGSE) is a newly founded graduate school in economics focusing on the training of PhD candidates in economics in Vienna. The school is a collaboration of the University of Vienna and the Institute of Advanced Studies and it is financed by a research grant of the Austrian Science Foundation (FWF). The school started with an international group of students in October 2010.

The next admission deadlines:
MSc Economics - March 1, 2013
Comparative Sociology - April 30, 2012
European Studies - May 2013
VGSF - January  9, 2013
VGSE - January 31^st and April 30^th each year

Education at the Institute for Advanced Studies is marked by its international, interdisciplinary and practical orientation. The structure of the courses correspond to the high international standard of postgraduate programs:

• Lectures are held by internationally renowned visiting professors from abroad.
• Training courses are held in small seminar groups.
• Every student is provided with his or her own workplace at the Institute. The efficiency of the training is increased by social and spatial unity.
• The availability of state-of-the-art computer equipment, databases, and a specialized library provides the best possible working conditions.

Application forms can be obtained from the secretaries.
MSc Economics: admission.economics@ihs.ac.at, Tel.: 59991-250;
POL: office.pol@ihs.ac.at, Tel.: 59991-166;
SOZ: office.soz@ihs.ac.at, Tel.: 59991-216;
VGSE: verena.konrad@univie.ac.at;
VGSF: adrian.baron@wu.ac.at;