FORWIT analyses Austria’s higher education system
At the kick-off of the development process for the 2040 Higher Education Strategy with Federal Minister Eva-Maria Holzleitner last Wednesday, FORWIT Chair Thomas Henzinger presented the objectives and ambition of the ongoing analysis of the higher education system, which the Federal Government has commissioned the Council for Sciences, Technology, and Innovation (FORWIT) to carry out.
Higher education analysis by FORWIT as a basis for the 2040 Higher Education Strategy
“The task of this analysis is to depict the Austrian higher education system – we are talking here about more than 70 institutions – in its entirety as it currently stands and to determine its systemic performance capacity.”
Thomas Henzinger
“The task of this analysis is to depict the Austrian higher education system – we are talking here about more than 70 institutions – in its entirety as it currently stands and to determine its systemic performance capacity,” explains Thomas Henzinger, head of the Council’s internal working group. To this end, quantitative indicators are being defined, possible target dimensions for the three core tasks of higher education institutions – knowledge transmission, knowledge production and knowledge transfer – are being proposed, and potential challenges are being identified that require a policy response.
The analysis constitutes a robust and necessary basis for the preparation of the higher education strategy, which must answer the question of what kind of higher education institutions Austria will need in 2040, Henzinger explains. “Only if we know where we stand can we act in a targeted and forward-looking manner.”
Experts on the Sounding Board provide the international perspective
An independent external view and learning from the experiences of other countries are also essential. To ensure that this important aspect is duly reflected in its analysis, FORWIT has secured four distinguished experts for an international Sounding Board: Rachel Brooks (Professor of Higher Education, University of Oxford), Lino Guzzella (former Rector and President of ETH Zurich), Ingvild Reymert (higher education and research policy scholar, Oslo Metropolitan University) and Robert-Jan Smits (former President of Eindhoven University of Technology and former Director-General for Research and Innovation at the European Commission). The Sounding Board will convene for the first time on 5 December.
“I am very pleased that we have been able to win these four outstanding experts to accompany and comment on our analysis from an international perspective,” says Henzinger.
A future-proof society needs high-performing higher education institutions
“It is therefore essential that Austria’s higher education institutions will also in future be capable of delivering the services expected of them and that a future-proof society needs.”
Thomas Henzinger
For Austria’s future development, it is crucial to position higher education institutions as effective sites of knowledge transmission and production, but also of knowledge transfer. They operate as nodes of societal debate, entrepreneurial innovation and political decision-making, Henzinger stresses. “It is therefore essential that Austria’s higher education institutions will also in future be capable of delivering the services expected of them and that a future-proof society needs.”
FORWIT’s report on the analysis of the Austrian higher education system is scheduled to be submitted to Federal Minister Eva-Maria Holzleitner and published in April 2026.
