The Academy as a Public Institution

The Vienna School of International Studies was separated from the Austrian Foreign Ministry in 1996 and has been an independent public institution ever since.

Bodies of the Vienna School of International Studies

Legal basis for the work of the DA

The legal basis for the work of the Diplomatische Akademie Wien – Vienna School of International Studies is the "Diplomatische Akademie-Gesetz" (DA-G; German version only).

On 10 September 2021, the current version promulgated in Federal Law Gazette I No. 177/2021 entered into force. The amendment explicitly clarified the equivalence of the Master's programmes offered at the DA in cooperation with recognised Austrian and international universities to regular study programmes in accordance with the European Higher Education Area’s Lisbon Recognition Convention (also known as “Bologna Process”). This ensures that the DA's study programmes will continue to be attractive to students from all over the world and that the DA will remain internationally competitive.

The amendment provides the DA with the opportunity to develop innovative new study programmes. Likewise, by anchoring culture as the fifth area of responsibility of the DA, the possibility of setting priorities in the area of cultural diplomacy, which is particularly promising for Austria, has been created.

"The Vienna School of International Studies thus has every opportunity to respond to the new challenges in international relations with innovative teaching programmes and as a public platform for international dialogue. This will also enable Austrian foreign policy to benefit even more from our work," said the DA’s director, Ambassador Emil Brix, on the adoption of the amendment to the DA-G in the Austrian National Council on 8 July 2021.