Together with the Johannes Kepler University Linz and the FernUniversität in Hagen, for over 40 years the Distance Learning Centre has stood for a wide range of future-oriented degree programs. The Centre recently moved to a new location in Vienna's 1st district to the Otto Wagner Postsparkasse building, a building that has recently been renovated to serve as a center to support art and science.

The Centre for Distance Learning Vienna (ZF Vienna) gives students an opportunity to earn degrees offered by both the JKU Linz as well as the FernUniversität in Hagen as part of a distance learning format. Each semeter, the JKU Centre for Distance Learning in Vienna provides support to over 2,000 students as they earn their respective academic degrees.

The anniversary and the new location were fittingly celebrated on June 14, 2023: Numerous well-wishers came together in the banking hall at the Otto Wagner Postsparkasse building, including Rectorate representatives from the universities in Linz and Hagen, as well as government representatives, and guests from the local business community, educational institutions, neighboring universities, and many alumni and pioneers who had been present since the very start.

Prof. Dr. Ada Pellert, Rector of the FernUniversität in Hagen, was among the well-wishers and she honored several graduates during the anniversary celebrations: "I would like to congratulate the Centre for Distance Learning on its new location in one of the most beautiful buildings in my former hometown of Vienna. Students enrolled at the FernUniversität in Hagen can take advantage of these study centers to not only attend classroom events, but also get together with fellow students. especially at this new, prestigious location in the center in Vienna."

The JKU's New Homebase in Vienna
Since the Fall of 2022, the Otto Wagner Postsparkasse building has transformed into a space that supports interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary collaboration: The Applied Sciences, the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on the Consequences of War, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), and the JKU (along its partner FernUniversität in Hagen) have come together form an impressive cluster of academic education.

The JKU has based the ZF Vienna along with research groups in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (JKU professor and Wittgenstein Award-winner Gerhard Widmer, and Prof. Günter Klambauer) in this location. As ZF Vienna also offers the JKU's Bachelor's and Master's degree program in "Artificial Intelligence" via distance learning, the JKU has brought education and research in this promising field together in one place, namely in Vienna.

JKU Rector-elect Univ. Prof. Dr. Mag. Stefan Koch remarked: "The JKU's new homebase in Vienna is ideal, both in terms of research projects and education. Joint activities by various university institutions genearte an inspiring environment and there is strong potential in support of cross-disciplinary partnerships."

Starting this fall, the Otto Wagner Postsparkasse building will also be the site for the new degree program "Transformation Studies. Art x Science" offered in cooperation with the University of Applied Arts Vienna.