Knowledge Transfer Competence As an Objective of Higher Education: The Curricular Transfer Orientation of Urban Planning Programs and Their Effects on the Development of Transfer Competence

In recent years, universities have increasingly been expected to facilitate knowledge transfer, which applies not only to academic research, but also to teaching. In dual higher education systems, universities offered primarily discipline-oriented programs, while universities of applied sciences (UAS) focused on more application-oriented programs. Against the backdrop of traditional institutional differences between types of higher education institutions and reforms-induced processes of institutional alignment (Bologna Process), this study examines the transfer orientation of study programs in urban planning at universities and UAS in Germany. The transfer orientation of 63 curricula towards knowledge transfer was operationalized by categorizing and combining a) teaching-learning formats and b) competence development objectives. Contrary to the expectation of institutional diversity, there are no statistically significant differences in the transfer orientation of master programs between universities and UAS. This isomorphism can probably be explained by the practice-oriented self-conception of the profession of urban planners. To validate this result, we conducted expert interviews with graduates of study programs in urban planning from both institutional categories who are currently working as urban planners in private planning offices or public administration. The interview results indicate only minor differences in the transfer orientation between graduates of universities and UAS. At the same time, the reconstruction of their professional biographies shows that it is not so much the type of university that influences the development of transfer competence, but rather transfer tasks that are presented to them by their sector-specific working life.