Expanding Horizons

Expanding Horizons Stacks are short, credit-bearing university courses — 6 credits, built from accredited courses at the University for Continuing Education Krems — built around questions worth taking seriously about culture, place, memory, image and story. No prior academic background is required, and no professional outcome is expected.

Readers, writers and travellers who want to go deeper than a weekend course allows; people returning to study after a long gap; retirees with time and curiosity; anyone who has always meant to study this properly.

► OPEN (now enrolling)

Write Your (True) Story
Expanding Horizons · 6 credits · On-site, Campus Krems + Wachau · English
What makes a story true? A weekend or three-Saturday Stack exploring storytelling traditions from Aboriginal narrative to AI — and into your own writing.

► UPCOMING

Lebenskünstler_innen
Expanding Horizons · 6 credits · On-site, Wachau region · German / English
Artists have always combined life and art. What does it look like when an artist’s life is their art?

→ Notify me when enrolment opens for upcoming stacks

► EXPLORING

Wachau Light & Dark
Expanding Horizons · 6 credits · On-site, Wachau region · German / English

→ Register interest in Explorative Stacks

Each Stack is built from two accredited 3-credit courses — typically a content course and a practice-based Arts & Culture Lab — giving 6 credits in total. Some Stacks add an optional self-directed praxis component (project, independent study, research paper, or internship), bringing the total to 9.

Participation is available at three levels: Observer, Participant, and Crediting. Credits earned at Crediting tier are documented under the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) on a formal UWK certificate, and are portable to other institutions.

• Short and concentrated: typically 6 credits over a weekend block or across two to three Saturdays, with occasional online formats

• Experience-led: a significant portion of each Stack takes place through workshops, excursions, writing experiments, or discussion — not lecture alone

• Flexible participation: attend as an Observer, engage fully as a Participant, or earn academic credits at Crediting tier — the content is the same at every level

• No prerequisites: every Stack in this category is open to anyone, regardless of academic background or professional field

Krems Culture Stacks are available at three levels. The tier you choose determines your access, what you receive at the end and the price - but not the quality of the experience.

Observer — €280 for a 6-credit Stack.
Attend the content sessions and receive an attendance statement. Participant — €580.

Full engagement including lab and workshop sessions, with a statement of active participation. Crediting — €980.

Assessed work, individual feedback from faculty, and a certificate recording your learning outcomes and grade.

For 3-credit Stacks the fees are €140, €280 and €480.
For 9-credit Stacks they are €440, €880 and €1,440. Full details are on each Stack page.

Many Master’s and Certificate Programs require electives worth 9 ECTS. A 6-credit Stack combined with a 3-credit Praxis course meets that requirement exactly.

Praxis courses come from the module Praxis in Arts & Cultural Studies: Conception & Planning, together with a project, an independent study, research work, an internship, or an Arts & Culture Lab.

You work independently, supervised and graded by a faculty member. Praxis is available at the Crediting tier only. If you are studying at UWK or elsewhere and need an elective, ask us which combination fits your programme.

Each Expanding Horizons Stack is built around a question worth taking seriously — about culture, place, memory, language, image, or story.

The content draws on accredited academic courses taught at UWK, which means the intellectual level is genuine, not simplified. The format is designed to fit around a working life: intensive weekends, working Saturdays, or fully online.

The group is mixed — academics, professionals, retirees, lifelong learners — and the diversity of experience in the room is part of what makes these offerings work.

Expanding Horizons is one of four categories within Krems Culture Stacks, the microcredential system of the Department for Arts & Cultural Studies at the Universität für Weiterbildung Krems. Credits earned at Crediting tier are stackable toward future Certificate Programs and Master's programmes at UWK, and are portable to other institutions via standard academic transcript.

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