3s was commissioned by the province of Lower Austria to evaluate its ‘TOP Stipendien NÖ’ (TOP scholarships Lower Austria) that support excellent and labour market oriented study programmes in demand by the job market.
The ‚top-scholoarships‘ were installed in 2001, in 2008/09 they focussed on supporting innovative study program concepts in as well as on a stronger link between higher education and innovative developments within Lower Austria.
The evaluation process included:
- Positioning of the support programme by national comparison: research of personlised support programmes on a local and national scale within the STEM sector;
- Positioning of the TOP support programme in comparison with Germany and Switzerland: research of best practices on personalised STEM support in Germany and Switzerland;
- Expert interviews on selected examples of best practice.