AQ Austria accredits Smart Building Technologies

Successful news at the MCI: The Board of the Agency for Quality Assurance and Accreditation Austria (AQ Austria) has accredited the dual Bachelor's degree programme Smart Building Technologies. This means that nothing stands in the way of the start of the first dual study programme in the European region of Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino. Young people can thus ideally combine their studies with a career.

Focus on sustainability

The bachelor's degree programme Smart Building Technologies will start in September 2021 and is aimed at school leavers as well as people already in professional life who are interested in smart infrastructure solutions of the future. Digitalisation, automation and information technology, the comprehensive field of heating, air-conditioning, ventilation, sanitary and lighting technology as well as the resulting "human" component of well-being in rooms and building complexes offer excellent prospects for the future. The technological content is rounded off with courses from the fields of economics, management and social skills.

The goal of focusing on technological innovations to reduce the ecological footprint, cost savings in the maintenance of buildings and improved well-being in spaces convinced the commission during the accreditation process. Werner Stadlmayr, head of the Smart Building Technologies degree programme, is pleased: "With the teaching of intelligent building technology, the Smart Building Technologies degree programme creates a network in which individual technology elements communicate with each other." Light switches automatically detect the position of the sun to save electricity, refrigerators adjust the cooling to the stored weight and thus the total volume, and the heating communicates with the smartphone and thus knows when people are present in the house and regulates the heat in the building accordingly. Teaching this forward-looking building technology thus creates a sound education for urgently needed skilled workers in the construction industry.

Study and work at the same time

To ensure ideal networking with practice, the dual study model was chosen. This means that students apply the knowledge they acquire at the university directly in practice and are employed by a partner company for the entire duration of their studies. The Smart Building Technologies training concept is supported by renowned partners from a wide range of industries in the smart building technology of the future, which promotes interdisciplinary exchange and networking between students throughout the entire degree programme.

Andreas Altmann, Rector of the MCI explains: "The dual Bachelor's degree programme Smart Building Technologies sets a new course in the higher education landscape. The cross-border orientation and the fact that the study programme is now recognised in Italy offer massive advantages for companies and students in the Euregio."