The University of Applied Arts Vienna is home to more than 1,800 students. The range of courses, which are on offer is unusually diverse and includes architecture, fine arts (painting, graphics, sculpture, photography, ceramics), stage design, design (fashion, graphic design, graphics and advertising, landscape design), industrial design, media design (transmedia arts, digital art), conservation and restoration, pedagogic studies for artistic teaching disciplines, textile design and handicrafts. It is precisely the diversity of these artistic disciplines, which is supplemented by a large number of scientific subjects, that contributes to the special atmosphere that prevails at the "Angewandte".

The basic concept of the university as a place of critical reflection upon personal thought and action and a forum, where questions are more important than given patent solutions, lives on at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Studies at the "Angewandte" are not limited to the mere conveyance of artistic techniques and skills. Rather, the nucleus of the courses is formed by the development of individual artistic creativity and the consideration of the artistic oeuvre on the basis of theories and concepts. Students learn about art and experience it, not just as an end it itself, but essentially as a starting-point and medium for communication, in which the analysis of the significance and the influence parameters of art within a social context occupy a permanent and important position. The encouragement to develop creative vision and the facilitation of artistic experiment, in tandem with a simultaneous commitment to technical excellence and conceptual brilliance, are the basic elements in the demand for quality with which the "Angewandte" confronts both teachers and students alike.

The "Angewandte" sees itself as a place for free artistic and scientific articulation, as a forum for open discussion and a development laboratory for artistic visions, which should fulfil their potential and shape the society of the future. Our claim to be one of the world's best art schools and the retention of this position are indelibly linked to systematic efforts aimed at the permanent further development of our quality standards, the ongoing renewal of creative potential and the uncompromising promulgation of the freedom of the arts and sciences.