Faculty for Interdisciplinary Research and Continuing Education
| Fakultät für Interdisziplinäre Forschung und Fortbildung (IFF) | |
| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Established | 1979 |
| Dean | Verena Winiwarter (since 1.1.2010) |
| Location | Klagenfurt, Graz and Vienna, Austria |
| Website | www.aau.at/iff |
The Faculty for Interdisciplinary Research and Continuing Education (IFF) is one of four Faculties at the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt. It has locations in Klagenfurt, Graz and Vienna.
The founding principle of the IFF is to link scholarship to contemporary social issues and problems. Reflecting this, the Faculty’s structure is built around the social field of the research rather than in line with individual scientific disciplines. Research work is focussed on questions concerning societies’ relationship with public goods such as health, environment, spatial resources, technology, education, science, politics and culture at large.
Research, teaching and continuing education at the IFF pursue dual aims – one of which is social and the other scholarly.Interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity form the basis of both the theory and practice of the IFF’s research concept. This means that researchers from various disciplines, experts and actors from various professional fields work together in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary projects and research areas focussing, among others, upon social, historical and systems science contexts. The projects are intervention-oriented. To intervene successfully, an understanding of the system- and organisational aspects of the problem is of central importance. Work undertaken by the Faculty therefore focuses upon encouraging well-reflected decision-making both in an individual and collective context. Concrete social problems and issues are addressed.
The IFF contributes to the solution of problems facing societies on one hand through research and teaching and on the other through consulting, intervention and extramural continuing education activities.
IFF was founded in 1979 as the ‘Interuniversity Research Institute for Distance Education’ (in German: ‘Interuniversitäres Forschungsinstitut für Fernstudien’ or ‘IFF’). Since that time, the IFF has undergone several transformations. On one hand, the institute’s character has been altered by its growth during that period, and on the other hand, changes have taken account of evolving developments in higher education policy and the need for the Faculty to adapt to these.
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