FH JOANNEUM Gesellschaft mbH University of Applied Sciences, which is one of the largest universities of applied sciences in Austria, lies in Graz, second largest city of Austria. It has six collages, with 3,800 students and 530 faculty. The main campus lies in Graz, and other two campuses in Kapfenberg and Bad Gleichenberg respectively, all of which are located in Styria State, Austria. From 2011, Universities of Applied Sciences set up 24 courses for bachelor degree and 15 courses for master degree including business, management, computer science, engineering, design, architecture, energy and environment, health and social service, etc. All the students who take these courses for degree need credits of internship.
School of Public Administration developed an exchange and cooperation project with School of International Management, Universities of Applied Sciences. Every year, 4-6 junior-year students are selected to attend the project and study at the main campus in Graz, Austria for one semester. The main subject is the Global Business Management, which is the most outstanding course, and the main courses include international business management, international financing management, international marketing management, international corporation management, international logistics management, international sales management, international market strategy, cross-board corporation management, international supply chain management, Asian business and management, etc. Besides, there are many foreign language courses as optional courses. After the project, the credits taken by attending courses of the project can be transferred to UIBE, and can be added in the subject list at that semester.
Many professors of that international project come from universities and corporations of different countries, including three major economies: America, Europe and Asia. It provides a great platform for students to understand the current global business development, acquire fundamental knowledge and skills and broaden views of the future. At the same time, the students attending the project are from different countries, so the students can learn different cultures after the class and improve their ability to solve cross-board culture conflicts. So far, more than 60 SPA students have gone to Austria to attend this project.
The international exchange project provided by SPA offers a platform for students to know Europe not only from the knowledge level, but also from the culture and language level. Students attending the project think so highly of it.
