International News & Stories
START Summer School 2026: Hiroshima meets Graz
As part of the START Summer School in September 2026, Eva Fleiß and Simone Ringhofer had the opportunity to spend 1.5 exciting days with students from Hiroshima University. The focus was on the question of how the transition towards a more sustainable passenger transport system can be shaped – and which differences and similarities can be observed between Austria and Japan.
Following an introductory session on Sustainability Transitions in Passenger Transport, the group headed out into the city. During a joint walk through Graz, the students analysed different forms of mobility, focusing, among other things, on car traffic, public transport, and active mobility such as cycling and walking.
Key questions included: Which modes of transport shape public space? Which differences stand out compared to Japanese cities? Where do conflicts of use arise between different road users, and which aspects of Graz’s mobility system are surprising from an international perspective?
On the following day, the observations were jointly reflected upon and discussed. In particular, comparing experiences from Austria and Japan opened up new perspectives on the design of sustainable mobility and highlighted how valuable international exchange can be when addressing complex sustainability challenges.
We would like to thank the students from Hiroshima University for the open and engaging exchange and are very pleased to have been part of the START Summer School.
Welcome to Graz, Chiara & Lorenzo!
We are very happy to welcome Chiara and Lorenzo from the University of Padova (Italy) to our department for the upcoming winter semester!
At their home university, both are studying Local Development, and for the next few months they will join our Master’s programme Environmental Systems Sciences – Sustainability and Innovation Management (ESS-SIM).
Their stay in Graz is part of an Arqus Mobility Window, developed within the Arqus Alliance to give students the opportunity to spend a semester at one of the partner universities while integrating their stay abroad into their regular study programme. Chiara and Lorenzo were selected for the two available Mobility Window places and will now spend the winter semester studying and living in Graz.
Their semester abroad has already started beyond the classroom: they have been exploring Graz, are looking forward to experiencing student life in the city and are both taking a German course to pick up some useful phrases for everyday life in Austria. Chiara has also already added one very important item to her Graz bucket list: trying a typical Austrian Krapfen.
Over the coming months, they will attend courses together with our ESS-SIM students, discover new perspectives, and hopefully take home plenty of academic as well as personal experiences.
We wish Chiara and Lorenzo a great start, an exciting semester and a wonderful time in Graz!
