Blogging
From Abroad

I already wrote about my hometown Seekirchen in a previous post. In today’s I’m going to focus on the university that hosted me during the last five years – my alma mater the BOKU. If anybody is interested in the history and a general article about Vienna, please consider the wikipedia link.

The BOKU was founded in 1872; starting as a college for forestry, supporting Austria’s cutting in healthy woods since back then. During one and a half century, new fields of sciences appeared and the Habsburg monarchs broadened the focus from only forestry to a more general “soil sciences”. This is the literal translation of “Bodenkultur”, the BOKU’s name and origin of it’s acronym in German.

Actually it covers every scientific aspect of “all that’s growing” how I like to define it. This includes the following undergraduate programs:
• Agricultue
• Forestry
• Wood- and Bio Based Fibre Technology
• Civil Engineering
• Landscape Architecture
• Food and Bio Technology
• Equine Science
• Environmental and Bio Resource Management
• Oenology and Vinery

Based on these bachelor programs, the BOKU has en even bigger graduate offer, providing master degrees in 24 different fields of study. And – thanks to my home-university’s international orientation, several of them are offered entirely in English:
• Environmental Sciences – Soil, Water and Biodiversity
• Animal Breeding and Genetics
• Safety in the Food Chain
• Horticultural Sciences
• Mountain Forestry
• Mountain Risk Engineering
• Natural Resources Management and Ecological Engineering

Okay, now you know what you can study at my university. But what’s a word worth without pictures? So allow me to show you around a bit:

The Guttenberghaus, one of the many buildings on the BOKU’s Türkenschanz campus. In here all the socioeconomic lectures are taught. Renovated just a few years ago, it offers a big lecutre hall for about 140 students. And sometimes we turn it into a movie theatre and show movies there.

I took this shot from the rooftop of the Schwackhöferhaus. This building hosts, besides others, the institute of wood science where I spent a lot of time. And if lectures are just too long I love to enjoy a quick cup of coffee on this spot.

Another aspect of studying in Austria are the university and dorm parties. Opposite to America, all the students are above the legal drinking age (for beer and wine it’s 16 years, yes sixteen), subsequently student parties can be biiig fun. This picture was taken inside the Exnerhaus, which hosts five lecture halls and some forestry related institutes.

After cleaning up, the Exnerhaus lookes sincere again. Besides the lecture halls and institutes it shelters the BOKU’s main library. A place that can be pretty crowded, especially at the end of the semester

Back to academics: the BOKU has an external institute with focus renewable resources. It offers up to date machinery for extrusion. Here I am just extruding a biobased polymer composed of wood particles and polylactic acid.

Excursion! What would life be without excursions? Due to Austrias diverse natural and industrial landscape, an interesting factory or site to visit is never far. But why only stay inside the country? Over the years several field trips took me even to Germany, Hungary, France and the Czech Republic. The photo, btw, shows extreme logging, the alpine style. Cable logging is common throughout the mountainous regions.

If you’re ever in Vienna around the end of January you shoud consider visiting the BOKU-Ball. This is an annual ball organised by the BOKU’s student union. And it’s a BIG thing. Ostentatious ballrooms in the Hofburg are rented for this very night. Thousands of people dress in their nicest suites, dresses or traditional clothes (yes, Lederhosen and Dirndls) and celebrate a georgous night of dancing and enjoying thereselves. There is a reason, why the Viennese Waltz is called the Viennese Waltz ; )

So, now I showed you a short glimpse of studying at the BOKU in Vienna. If you cought interest, and want to learn more – here is the link to the BOKU’s webpage in English. It’d be great if some WVU students come to the BOKU again! You could even make a whole program here. Too expensive you think? Just imagine, the Austrian government just cut tuition for out-of-EU students in half, amounting ~500$ for a semester. That means a master degree for two grand. Na, do I have your attention now?