3 Pillars of BOKU

Information on the topic of the 3-pillar principle

The 3-pillar principle is the central identifying feature of both the Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna.

For the Bachelor's degree programmes,
the sum of the content of the mandatory and elective courses consists each of at least
25% Technology, Engineering Sciences
25% Natural Sciences and
25% Economic, Social, and Legal Sciences.

Excluded from the 3-pillar principle are the Bachelor's thesis, the mandatory internship and the free electives.

In the Master's degree programmes
the sum of the content of the mandatory and elective courses consists each of at least
15 % Technology and Engineering Sciences
15 % Natural Sciences and
15 % Economic, Social, and Legal Sciences

Excluded from the 3-pillar principle are the Master's thesis, the mandatory internship and the free electives.

Table: Percentage allocation of mandatory courses and electives to the 3 pillars

General information:

Please note that this list does not represent the entire range of courses offered at BOKU:
NOT included in this list:

  • Courses that are not assigned to a curriculum and are offered as "free electives".
  • "New" courses, i.e. those that have been implemented after the list was created.

Unfortunately, we did not have any values on individual courses at the time the list was compiled. In the event that the course you are looking for cannot be found in this list or if the values are missing from the list, please contact the responsible lecturer by e-mail (please use CC to send a copy to agnes.fueloep@boku.ac.at).

Please note that the list may contain courses that are no longer offered. You can find the complete current course programme in BOKUonline.

Austrian Classification of Scientific Disciplines (Statistics Austria) as a point of reference (with restrictions – see below) for the allocation of courses to the 3 pillars
Technology, Engineering / Natural Sciences / Economics, Social, and Legal sciences: 

 http://www.statistik.at/kdb/downloads/pdf/OEFOS2002_EN_CAL_20070226_000000.pdf
 
For various reasons, the system only serves as a point of orientation for the BOKU 3-pillar classification, e.g. the area of agriculture and forestry is a separate area here – these topics must therefore be assigned to other areas. 
The classification system has multiple categorisations in some areas, e.g. communication science is classified under humanities and social sciences or agricultural economics under agriculture and forestry and economics.
The system is at the 4-digit level, i.e. the level of detail of courses is not shown.