Abstract
Fachhochschulen (FHS, universities of applied sciences) are one of the pillars in binary higher education systems in some of the European countries (Germany, Switzerland) whose roots date back to the 1960s and the 1970s. Contrary to this, Austria started to focus on the diversification and expansion of the upper-secondary schools sector only in the early 1990s. The policy reform led to a greenfield initiative, public-private partnerships and new organisational and (higher) educational alternatives to universities. The development of the FHS sector was spurred by the social promise of equality of opportunities and, at the very same time, by the major assumption in Europe that economic growth could be reached by investment in education and research through the ‘mobilization’ of talent resources. The literature over the last 20 years on Austrian higher education frequently refers to FHS as a success story. The perceived success is derived from its uniqueness in Europe and because of the solutions related to initial difficulties around the establishment and implementation of this new sector. This chapter describes the design process, challenges and lessons learned of the policy reform in Austria. As the policy reforms took place 20 years ago, this chapter focuses on the implementation of the policy reform and highlights the more significant improvements and changes vis-à-vis the original policy in the last 20 years. Furthermore, the chapter identifies the uniqueness including legal, structural and operational aspects of the reform.
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Notes
- 1.
In actual fact, this policy review was published in 1995 after the new FHStG had already been passed. However, it was supportive of the policy design process as a vehicle for a broader conceptual discussion and the inclusion of external views in the process.
- 2.
The chosen policy instruments were also simultaneously employed for another policy reform regarding university autonomy.
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Pausits, A. (2017). Reform of the Fachhochschulen in Austria. In: Policy Analysis of Structural Reforms in Higher Education. Palgrave Studies in Global Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42237-4_2
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