Structure

The VGSF pro­gram is a 5-year, full-­time pro­gram that is struc­tured into course­work and re­search. The aim of the course­work is to equip stu­dents with the tools ne­ces­sary to develop in­nov­at­ive re­search in fin­ance.

VGSF stu­dents are fully fun­ded, al­low­ing them to com­pletely fo­cus on their PhD.

Core & elect­ive courses

In the first three years of their PhD stud­ies, stu­dents take a range of courses, which in­clude core and elect­ive courses. To find out more about courses, please click here.

Re­search

In their third year, stu­dents start fo­cus­ing on re­search. Our stu­dents are re­quired to write three re­search pa­pers, in­clud­ing one single-au­thored pa­per.

Choice of re­search area(s) & su­per­visor(s)

Stu­dents gen­er­ally choose their su­per­visor(s) in their second year, after devel­op­ing their re­search in­terests. Our fac­ulty's re­search areas in­clude cor­por­ate fin­ance, as­set pri­cing, fin­an­cial in­ter­me­di­ations, and mar­ket mi­cro­struc­ture, among other fields. To find out more about our fac­ulty, please click here.

Weekly re­search sem­inars

Every week, VGSF or­gan­izes the Fin­ance Re­search Sem­inar, host­ing top in­ter­na­tional re­search­ers present­ing their cur­rent work. This weekly event in­tro­duces our stu­dents to in­nov­at­ive re­search ideas and to a wide net­work of fin­ance schol­ars.

Ad­di­tion­ally, stu­dents and fac­ulty can join the sem­inars or­gan­ized by WU’s De­part­ment of Fin­ance, Ac­count­ing and Stat­ist­ics and the Uni­versity of Vi­enna’s Fac­ulty of Busi­ness, Eco­nom­ics and Stat­ist­ics.

VGSF Con­fer­ence

This an­nual con­fer­ence provides stu­dents with the op­por­tun­ity to present their re­search and pro­gress to the entire VGSF fac­ulty and re­ceive valu­able in­sights and feed­back. The two-day con­fer­ence in­cludes a net­work­ing din­ner.

Travel grants for con­fer­ences

Stu­dents whose pa­pers are ac­cep­ted for present­a­tion at ma­jor con­fer­ences are eli­gible for travel grants. In ad­di­tion, stu­dents can at­tend local sem­inars and events or­gan­ized by the sup­port­ing in­sti­tu­tions.

Job mar­ket train­ing

In the fifth year, we help stu­dents pre­pare for the job mar­ket with job mar­ket train­ing ses­sions, mock in­ter­views, and a sem­inar on present­a­tion skills.

VGSF Bro­chure