Current trends and future challenges of the Austrian Universities of Applied Sciences

As in most European countries, the higher education sector of Austria is characterized by a binary system consisting of Universities and Universities of Applied Sciences. However, the dynamic changes experienced in both sectors create the necessity to re-evaluate their individual profiles and the binary divide between them. Against this background a series of interlinked foresight studies on the perspectives and challenges of the Austrian Universities of Applied Sciences have been realized between 2010 and 2016, including a literature based trend analysis, a delphi study and explorative scenarios. This paper presents and discusses the main results of these studies.