Linking Science and Economics
With reunification and the founding of the new federal states, the reorganization of the higher education landscape was one of the most important tasks for the state governments in eastern Germany, and thus also for Saxony-Anhalt.
Saxony-Anhalt's industry urgently needed innovative impulses for a new orientation of the regional Economics. The aim was to transform research-intensive predecessor institutions into universities of applied sciences in order to give research a higher status. The latest developments, ideas and results were to be transferred directly into Economics, so that new economic structures would develop for Central Germany in the medium term and new attractive jobs would be created.
The founding of the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences with its locations in Bernburg, Dessau and Köthen in 1991 was therefore of particular importance: with the core mission of being application-oriented and business-oriented, its task was to act as a driving force for the Economics of the Anhalt region - and to do so in a way that was geared towards the regional economic structure.
The state government and the federal government continue to support Anhalt University of Applied Sciences in linking science and Economics. One current example is the federal-state funding initiative "Innovative University". The principle of excellence universities also works for universities of applied sciences. The idea behind it is to strengthen selected local universities in order to get innovations off the ground.
