Within this review section former exchange students to Vienna share their stories, experiences and opinions with you.
Make sure you read this experience report by an Erasmus student from Iceland before starting your term at the University of Vienna Law School!

A year at Law School in Vienna

An international student from Reykjavík at the University of Vienna

I spent a full school year at the University of Vienna, Austria through the Erasmus program. The university has a high number of students, usually around 75.000 to 85.000 and my department of Political Science had about 800 students. The size of the school and also the department made it harder to get to know the fellow students since there was not so much emphasis on the social life of students within my deparment.
The department offers quite a lot of courses in English, but I also took classes in the International Development and History departments. I was very pleased with the topics of all of my classes and the University of Vienna has an emphasis on Eastern Europe which I thought was very interesting. I learned so many new things that are not taught in my home university.
However, the condititions for students to study at the university area are not so good and some of the classrooms are outdated, which the students are though constantly fighting for, there were student demonstrations weekly for the first few weeks of my stay. So there are basic students rights that are missing, but the students are busy fighting for them, which is good.
The Erasmus office was very helpful and I never had any problems. The ESN (Erasmus Student Network) program was very good and active and I participated in quite a few of their organized meetings and trips. You can meet so many people through Erasmus and at the University of Vienna, they take real good care of you and make sure you feel included.
The city of Vienna is indeed lovely and has so much to offer. The size felt perfect, the buildings are breathtakingly beautiful, and the public transport system is very good. There is a variety of restaurants, shops, parks, cafes and museums where you can spend your days.
To live in Austria, it is essential to have a basic knowledge of German, it makes everything easier, even though I know that some exchange students who only spent one semester in Vienna, could go without speaking any German at all. Most of the people are very open to talk to a person who tries to speak German but a lot of young people love to practice their English with you. The University offers courses in German and many other institutions as well but most are quite expensive.

Anna from Reykjavík, Iceland