The current establishment of a TU in Linz should be an occasion to put institutional aspects aside and emphasise qualitative criteria.

It is worth noting that, according to the information available so far, the planned TU Linz will have some parallels to the universities of applied sciences. Proximity to industry, a high degree of practical relevance and lean organisational structures are aspects that the Austrian universities of applied sciences have successfully established and implemented in Austria and that the new TU in Linz should now also have.

"In contrast to the universities of applied sciences, however, the new university is apparently to receive basic funding for research from federal funds. We are taking this as an opportunity to renew our long-standing demand for sustainable, performance-orientated funding for research at universities of applied sciences. Research is indispensable for ensuring high-quality teaching. Research must continue to develop in parallel with teaching in order to maintain the specific practice-oriented university profile of universities of applied sciences. If this is now taken into account in the implementation of the new TU, it must also apply to the UAS sector, which has been in existence for more than 30 years, and finally be reflected in basic federal funding for research," says FHK President Ulrike Prommer.

With regard to the institutional right to award doctorates that is to be granted to the new TU in Linz, FHK Secretary General Kurt Koleznik notes: "The implementation of doctorates and their anchoring in the Austrian higher education landscape require a stringent legal basis. Not only institutional, but above all qualitative criteria should be relevant here. There is no doubt that there are research fields at universities of applied sciences that have been successfully developed over many years. These are also structured in such a way that they would be in a position to successfully apply for accreditation of a doctoral programme almost immediately. And yet universities of applied sciences are denied this opportunity. This unequal treatment cannot be objectively justified and must be urgently remedied."