Erste Bank’s Partnership with the University of Economics and Business Administration Vienna

For several years, Erste Bank and Vienna’s University of Economics have been closely cooperating in various projects which focus on the Central and Eastern European area.

Erste Bank has been a close partner of Vienna’s University of Economics and Business Administration (WU Wien) for several years. In addition to the Summer University Danubia (see separate description), Erste Bank is instrumental in supporting the following university programmes:

• The JOSZEF Programme prepares students for management positions in Central Europe. In a two-semester advanced training course, a new generation of prospective managers is trained for the Central European market. Students will spend a semester abroad at a Central European partner university and also attend an intensive language course.
• The Master Class Eastern Europe addresses business-school students who seek a challenging position in the CEE region and want to undergo special training. In the course of two semesters, the master class combines well-founded theory with practice-oriented training.
• To further strengthen the University’s expertise in Central Europe, student exchange programmes with partner universities are continuously enlarged. Currently WU Wien cooperates with 22 partner universities in Eastern Europe. During the academic year of 2003/2004, WU Wien sent 50 students to partner universities (9.5 % of all outgoing students), and 85 students from partner universities (17.3 % of all incoming students) were guest students at WU Wien.

Erste Bank Group focusing on the promotion of economic studies in Central Europe
Erste Bank Group sees it as their responsibility to promote and further develop economic studies in the Central European region. For this reason, Erste Bank closely cooperates with Vienna’s University of Economics and Business Administration, while Ceska sporitelna and Slovenska sporitelna are general partners of the Universities of Economics in Prague and Bratislava, respectively. A number of projects take account of the Central European dimension of this commitment (Summer University Danubia, Erste Bank Award for Research in Central Europe).