The current Student Social Survey 2025 clearly shows that Austria's universities of applied sciences (UAS)/universities of applied sciences (UAS) make a decisive contribution to more equal opportunities in the education system.

For example, a significantly larger proportion of students at UASs come from non-academic households. 63 per cent of first-year students are so-called „first-generation students“ - i.e. the first in their family to study. At universities, on the other hand, this proportion is only 48 per cent.

Consequently, there are clear differences in access to higher education: While universities continue to be strongly characterised by the educational background of parents, UASs are much more successful in breaking down social barriers. Access is demonstrably more permeable here.

UASs have a particularly strong impact where traditional educational pathways are not effective: Part-time study programmes enable people with employment, family commitments or non-traditional educational biographies in particular to take up a degree course. In these programmes, the proportion of first-generation students is as high as 70 percent.

„These figures confirm what we have been emphasising for years: FH/HAW clearly promote social permeability in the Austrian higher education system,“ says FHK President Ulrike Prommer. „We succeed in opening up educational opportunities regardless of origin, income or family background. Our universities are an effective means of combating inherited social inequality.“

The study also shows that UASs are particularly attractive for students with a migration background and people from less educated backgrounds. They offer access where other educational paths often remain blocked.

The FHK sees the results as confirmation of its call for further expansion and sustainable funding of the sector: „Our universities open up academic knowledge to underrepresented groups and promote excellent minds from all social classes. An investment in our universities is an investment in equal opportunities, sustainability and social peace,“ says FHK Secretary General Kurt Koleznik.