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 (2014-15: 182
students from 57 countries).