Diplomatic Academy of Vienna

The Diplomatic Academy of Vienna (DA) offers post-graduate academic programmes which prepare ambitious, young people for the varied challenges of an international career. The main academic areas encompass international relations, political science, international and EU law, economics, history and languages. The DA equips its students not only with the academic qualifications, but also the intercultural competences, negotiation and management skills which are today the essential and often decisive prerequisites for a subsequent interesting international career. Students receive a world-class education in international affairs, an endeavour begun by the Empress Maria Theresa when she founded the Oriental Academy in 1754 to train young men for the diplomatic service of the Habsburg monarchy. Out of the Oriental Academy evolved first the Consular Academy and in 1964 the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, which in 1996 was granted the status of an independent public institution. The students thus profit from a long academic history, since the Academy is oldest still existing institution of its kind worldwide. As much as international professions have changed over the centuries, so has the DA which now boasts a vigorous academic life, a strengthened faculty and an internationally composed student body (2015-16: 170 students from 48 countries).