Lernprozesse in der Politik am Beispiel der Etablierung des Fachhochschulsektors in Österreich

Abstract: In May 1993 the Austrian parliament decided on the Fachhochschule Studies Act (Fachhochschul-Studiengesetz, FHStG). The new Fachhochschul sector established a neweducational pathway in the higher education system as an alternative to the universities. This paper analyses the emergence, development and implementation of the new policy from a policy learning approach . This approach tries to relate phenomena of policy change to concepts of institutional and social learning. In particularit focuses on processes of knowledge production and diffusion in the realm of polity. The analytical framework and the basic concepts of this study are tied to theoretical work on policy learning by Peter May (1992) and Paul Sabatier (1993; 1998).;