Outgoing students

Meteorology students in Vienna can apply for Erasmus+ mobility towards:

• University of Bologna, programmes in Science of Climate and Physics of the Earth System (2 semester places every academic year).
• University of Oslo, programme in Geosciences (2 semester places every academic year).
• Universities of Munich (Ludwig-Maximiliens), Madrid (Complutense) and Budapest (Eötvös Loránd). These mobility agreements belong to the Erasmus+ programming period 2021-2027. They will be discontinued in the next programming period (2028-2034). It will still be possible to apply one last time for mobility towards these destinations: in early 2027, for mobility during the academic year 2027-28.

Extensive information on the application process at the University of Vienna can be found on the websites of the International Office and of the Faculty of Earth Sciences, Geography and Astronomy.

The mobility coordinator for Meteorology is Stefano Serafin. He can help you with:

• finding information about courses at the host institution.
• linking you with mobility coordinators and lecturers at the host institution.
• linking you with students that had an outgoing Erasmus+ fellowship in the recent past.

When considering to apply for Erasmus+ mobility, weigh carefully the good things about it:

• it looks good on any CV, because it shows evidence of initiative and willingness to move out of comfort zones.
• attending courses in partner universities is an excellent opportunity to fill knowledge gaps (the Meteorology curricula in Vienna cover a broad scope, but not everything).
• it can open up career opportunities, especially in some research-oriented disciplines such as meteorology and climate science.

and the unavoidable complications:

• it might slighly delay your studies.
• you might need a health insurance while you are abroad.
• you will need to find an accommodation, and possibly give up your current one.
• in cities with particularly high housing costs, you might need much more money than you think.

• Outgoing mobility is recommended at master level, but discouraged at bachelor level. While master courses abroad are usually offered in English, bachelor courses are most often given in the national language. The language barrier is therefore a lot higher. Also, experience suggests that it is very hard to find suitable meteorology courses in foreign bachelor programmes. Often, the only option for acknowledging foreign bachelor courses is to credit them in the module APM-NatWis (Benachbarte Naturwissenschaften und Soft Skills).
• Keep your motivation letters short: 250 to 300 words.
• Competition for the few available mobility places in Meteorology has traditionally been very low, but it is increasing. To improve your chances of being awarded a mobility fellowship, always indicate a second preference.
• If, after applying for Erasmus+ mobility, you decide that after all it is not for you, please withdraw. Otherwise the mobility place might be lost (i.e., nobody else can use it in that academic year).
• If you are awarded a mobility place, contact the local chapters of Erasmus Student Network in Bologna or Oslo.

…you are interested in boundary-layer meteorology, earth observation from space, climate change, data assimilation. The University of Bologna offers a very broad range of courses at master level, all taught in English, some of which are a near-perfect match for the compulsory courses of the Vienna master curriculum.

You have the freedom to configure your learning agreement as you like, but we recommend the following. If you move to Bologna in the winter semester, consider these courses, which are good matches for Module Group A courses in Vienna:

• 99083 DATA ASSIMILATION FOR DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS (for 280352 VU Data Assimilation and Ensemble Methods).
• 96843 NUMERICAL LABORATORY OF THE ATMOSPHERE AND OCEAN (for 280354 VU Modelling and Data Analysis).
• 81758 ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY (for 280350 VO Environmental Meteorology).

If instead you move to Bologna in the summer semester, consider taking these courses, which can easily be recognized as elective courses in Vienna:

• B5634 COMPLEX TERRAIN METEOROLOGY
• 99515 EARTH OBSERVATION FOR CLIMATE SCIENCE
• 99520 MODERN CLIMATE CHANGE
• 99522 PLANETARY ATMOSPHERES AND EXOPLANETS
• 99523 TROPICAL AIR-SEA INTERACTION

…if you are interested in expanding your knowledge on geosciences at large, and if you have an interest in cold climates.

You have the freedom to configure your learning agreement as you like, but we recommend these courses in the winter semester:

• Geophysical data science GEO4300.
• Glaciology GEO4420.
• Hydrological Modelling GEO4320.
• Seminar on current topics in geoscience GEO5550.

and these courses in the summer semester:

• Turbulent boundary layers GEO4926 (in particular if you did not not take boundary-layer meteorology in the Vienna Bachelor).
• Data Analysis and Model Evaluation Tools in Environmental and Climate Science GEO4992.
• The Surface Energy Balance in Cold Environments GEO4432.
• The General Circulation of the Oceans GEO4960.