Webster Vienna Private University

Webster Vienna Private University was founded in 1981 and holds a position none of the other Webster campuses does: it is a fully accredited private university in Austria in its own right, as well as part of Webster University's American accreditation. That dual accreditation is the substance. A graduate holds a degree recognised both as an American qualification and within the European Higher Education Area, which governs recognition across the European Union and beyond. For a Kazakh student intending to work or study further in Europe, the second recognition is worth as much as the first. The campus occupies a former palace in Vienna's second district, with class sizes reported at five to thirty students. Two historical details are worth noting. It opened in 1981 after the mayor of Vienna, Leopold Gratz, invited Webster University to establish the country's first American university, having been impressed by a visit to the Geneva campus. And in 1985 it became the first institution to offer an accredited MBA programme in Austria. It remains a distinct institution rather than a subordinate branch, which is what underpins its independent Austrian accreditation.