The Johannes Kepler University Linz (German: ''Johannes Kepler Universität Linz'', short: ''JKU'') is a

public university A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant funding from a government. Whether a national university is considered public varies from o ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. It is located in

Linz Linz (Pronunciation: , ; ) is the capital of Upper Austria and List of cities and towns in Austria, third-largest city in Austria. Located on the river Danube, the city is in the far north of Austria, south of the border with the Czech Repub ...

, the capital of

Upper Austria Upper Austria ( ; ; ) is one of the nine States of Austria, states of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg (state), Salzbur ...

. It offers bachelor's, master's, diploma and doctoral degrees in business, engineering, law, science, social sciences and medicine. Today, about 24,000 students study at the park campus in the northeast of Linz, with one out of nine students being from abroad. The university was the first in Austria to introduce an electronic student ID in 1998. The university is the home of the Johann Radon Institute for Computational and Applied Mathematics (RICAM) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

History

The JKU was established as the "College of Social Sciences, Economics and Business" (''Hochschule für Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften'') in 1966. The Faculty of Sciences and Engineering was established three years later and in 1975, the college was awarded university status and the Faculty of Law was integrated on campus. The university was named in honor of astronomer

Johannes Kepler Johannes Kepler (27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, Natural philosophy, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best know ...

(1571-1630) who wrote his magnum opus ''harmonices mundi'' ("The Harmony of the world") in Linz during the early 17th century and taught mathematics at a school for the landed gentry (''Adelichen Landt-Schuelen'') near Linz. At present, the campus added the "JKU Science Park", additional buildings for science and engineering institutes. In 2019 many new buildings are being built.

Campus

JKU's campus is located in the northeast of

, in the ''Auhof'' area of the ''St. Magdalena'' district. The university buildings are placed in a 90-acre (364,000 m²) park centered around a pond.

Infrastructure

The campus is accessible by the Linz tram lines ''1'' and ''2'' and the express bus line ''77''. On weekdays, trams travel every 5 minutes and a trip to the city center (''Hauptplatz'') takes approximately 16 minutes. The JKU is also located close to Austria's

autobahn The (; German , ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. Much of t ...

network at the ''Dornach'' exit on the ''A7 Mühlkreisautobahn'' (ca. 1 km or 0.6 miles). In anticipation of extending the campus, an additional autobahn exit, ''Auhof'', is currently in the construction stages and is expected to better facilitate traffic, allowing a more direct route to the university. A bicycle path in the north-east corner of the town located along the north side of the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

river provides direct access to the university and helps to reduce traffic in the area.

Housing

Many larger dormitories are within walking distance of the university, such as the ''Julius Raab Heim'', the ''WIST Haus'', the ''Kepler Heim'', the ''ESH'' and the ''KHG Heim''. Several other dormitories are located in different parts of Linz, providing housing for more than 3,100 students in all of Linz. Some of the dormitories become

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

s during the summer holidays, most notably the ''Julius Raab Heim'' under the name ''Hotel Sommerhaus''.

Management

The vice-chancellor and the Academic Senate are responsible for the university's management. There are several pro-vice-chancellors who are each assigned to specific task areas and who assist the vice-chancellor. The university board is an independent body that advises and counsels the vice-chancellor and the Academic Senate on management issues. Deans and faculty committees are responsible for management on a faculty level. Vice-chancellor and deans are elected for a 4-year period whereas faculty committees are elected for a 2-year period.

Faculties and Degree Programs

The Johannes Kepler University has four faculties with a total of 127 institutes.

Faculty of Social Sciences, Economics and Business (SoWi)

The Faculty of Social Sciences, Economics and Business is the oldest and largest faculty in terms of students and graduates. The faculty consists of 32 institutes and offers academic degrees e.g. in Economics and Business Administration,

Business Informatics Business informatics (BI) is a discipline combining economics, the economics of digitization, business administration, accounting, internal auditing, information technology (IT), and concepts of computer science. Business informatics centers arou ...

, Business and Education,

Social Economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyse ...

Sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

and

Statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...

. The faculty's abbreviation ''SoWi'' is derived from the German name of the faculty, ''Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät''.

Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (TN)

The Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences was established in 1969 and initially offered degrees e.g. in Technical Mathematics,

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

and Technical Physics. Over time, degrees in Technical Chemistry,

Mechatronics Mechatronics engineering, also called mechatronics, is the synergistic integration of mechanical, electrical, and computer systems employing mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, electronic engineering and computer engineering, and also ...

and Information Electronics were introduced. Several master's degrees to specialize in the area of computer science, mathematics and physics, such as pervasive computing, industrial mathematics or

biophysics Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations ...

are available. Doctorate degrees are offered in the areas of

natural science Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

and technical science. The TN faculty consists of 51 distinctive institutes and the German name is ''Technisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät'', hence the abbreviation ''TN'' or ''TNF''.

Faculty of Law (RE)

The Faculty of Law was officially established in 1975. Before that time period, law degrees were offered by the ''SoWi'' faculty, which was then the''Faculty of Social Sciences, Economics, Business and Law''. In addition to Diploma and doctorate degrees in law, the RE faculty offers a Bachelor's degree in

Business Law Commercial law (or business law), which is also known by other names such as mercantile law or trade law depending on jurisdiction; is the body of law that applies to the rights, relations, and conduct of persons and organizations engaged in ...

in cooperation with the ''SoWi'' faculty. Law degrees are also offered via multimedia distance learning. The abbreviation ''RE'' is derived from the first two letters of the faculty's name German name, ''Rechtswissenschaftliche Fakultät.'' At present, the RE faculty consists of 20 institutes.

Faculty of Medicine (MED)

The Faculty of Medicine was founded in 2014. A new MED-Campus is being built.

Interdisciplinary programs

The Leading Innovative Organizations program is a one-year master's program offered jointly by the institute for organization, the institute for leadershing and change management and the institute of innovative management. It aims to offer its students the skills required to establish, lead, and manage a successful, innovative, and sustainable organization. The master's degree program in web sciences is divided into branches of study:

social web The social web is a set of social relations that link people through the World Wide Web. The social web encompasses how websites and software are designed and developed in order to support and foster social interaction. These online social int ...

, web art & design, web business & economy, web engineering as well as web and the law. It offers those with academic background in various fields a research-led expansion and in-depth look at fields relevant to the web such as technology, business, law, society, art and culture.

Distance learning

The JKU maintains several distance learning centers in Austria that offer degrees and courses at the German FernUniversität Hagen, the British

Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...

and JKU's own distance law degree program.

Notable alumni

* Bernd Bergmair, majority owner of

Mindgeek Aylo is a Canadian multinational Pornography, pornographic Media conglomerate, conglomerate owned by Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners. It is primarily involved in internet pornography, operating a number of video sharing web ...

* Christine Haiden, writer, editor and journalist