‘There are more international students at the University of Graz than at my home universities in Rio de Janeiro and Recife,’ enthuses Lara Ferraz about the multicultural campus life. And what other differences between Brazil and Austria does she notice? “The weather is a lot colder here,” grins the law student. The teaching, on the other hand, is more similar than she expected.
The law student is spending the summer semester at the University of Graz, where she is concentrating on her area of specialisation, climate justice. ‘Climate change is very present,’ notes Lara Ferraz. ‘I recognise its high relevance in all areas.’ She wants to continue working on this topic professionally in Brazil after completing her master's degree. She is still considering where exactly: ‘Either in a law firm or as a researcher.’
From Rio to Graz
How did the Brazilian discover the University of Graz for her student exchange? ‘My research advisor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro has worked on some projects with professors from here and they established a partnership between the two universities. That gave me the opportunity to participate in the exchange program,’ explains Lara Ferraz. The South American feels very welcome and at home at the university. She is also impressed by the city: ‘Graz is just the right size, I can easily walk everywhere.’
Master student from Kuala Lumpur
Yuan Way Chow also travelled a long way to come to the University of Graz. He is from Malaysia and currently completing his exchange semester at the department of Linguistics. The master's student of sociolinguistics also chose the University of Graz on the recommendation of his supervisor. And he has no regrets about the decision. Even his late arrival went smoothly: ‘When I arrived in Graz after office hours, my buddy brought me my key to the train station so that I didn't have to sleep under a bridge.’ Overall, the people are very hospitable. ‘The students are very courteous and switch to English when I'm around,’ Yuan Way Chow is pleased to report. He is also enthusiastic about the fact that the university is well managed with plentiful resources. And as a further plus point, he notes: ‘The University of Graz has an open campus and is much more integrated into the city than my home university, the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur.’
Mathematician from Tunis
‘It's a continuous path of learning, as a researcher and as a teacher. Day after day. I find that extremely exciting,’ says Mouna Gharbi. And the Tunisian has been continuing on this path at the department of Mathematics and Scientific Computing at the University of Graz since February 2025. Here she is also continuing her research, which she most recently worked on as a Marie Curie fellow at the Université Paris-Saclay.
She is focusing primarily on mathematical solutions of so-called inverse problems. “This involves, for example, reconstructing meaningful information from incomplete or noisy data,” explains Gharbi. The researcher confirms that this topic can be found in numerous applications: “For instance, in signal reconstruction and image processing in the medical field.” She is now devoting herself to interpretable, robust, efficient models and algorithms that are designed to improve the quality of this data.”
Despite only being here for a short time, Mouna Gharbi is already feeling very much at home at the University of Graz. She is following the campus development with interest. ‘When I arrived, I immediately noticed the info point and the construction fence for the Graz Center of Physics. I like the slogan “Think positive like a proton”,’ smiles the mathematician.
