The PhD Program in International Business Taxation is aimed at future researchers in the fields of finance, business taxation, and international taxation, providing them with an interdisciplinary education that focuses on the taxation of cross-border business activities. Aspects of economic psychology, history, ethics, the philosophy of law, political science, and decision theory round off the academic scope of the program.

Successful grant applications

In the spring of 2019, WU submitted a new application for a doc.funds grant to the FWF. The application was reviewed in February 2020. According to the FWF, only 4 PhD-level programs were selected to receive grants under the doc.funds program. One of them is WU’s PhD Program in International Taxation, which will receive the full grant amount applied for. “We are very proud that following the grant awarded to the Vienna Graduate School of Finance in 2018 we can now announce that another FWF doc.funds grant will be awarded to a WU PhD program. Our program won the grant despite strong competition from programs in the natural sciences and medicine. Our PhD Program in International Taxation has an excellent international reputation and attracts many researchers from around the world. Such programs boost WU’s international visibility and strengthen Vienna’s profile as a center of academic research,” says WU Rector Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger.

About WU’s PhD Program in International Business Taxation

In the first year of this 3-year program, students acquire the fundamental skills and knowledge they need for interdisciplinary academic work. In the second and third years, the program also includes seminars taught by renowned international visiting faculty and a research stay abroad, intended to prepare students optimally for their own research activities. The program is taught in English, and it is characterized by a highly international student body and faculty. WU Professor Michael Lang, Vice-Rector for Research and Human Resources and coordinator of the program, says, “Currently, 30 students from 19 countries are enrolled in the International Business Taxation program. Every year, we invite renowned international academics to teach in the program as visiting lecturers. The success of our graduates working at prestigious universities and research institutions worldwide confirms the high quality of the program. We are very proud that the international FWF jury recognized this quality and the success story of the program. With this FWF grant, we can now secure the funding of the program for another 4 years, continue its success, provide scholarships to top-qualified applicants from around the globe, invite renowned researchers from different continents as visiting faculty, and enable our students to complete research stays at other leading universities worldwide.”