The Universities of Applied Sciences are among the Bavarian Free State’s most promising investments for the future. They are still a fairly recent addition to the Bavarian education system. The Bavarian university landscape is efficient, diverse and sophisticated, consisting of: 17 state “Fachhochschulen” (Universities of Applied Sciences), nine state Universitäten (Universities on the traditional model), five state “Kunsthochschulen” (Academies of Arts) and a range of other institutions of higher education run by municipal, church and private bodies. Whereas the “Universitäten”, as the traditional form of university, focus more strongly on academic training and the “Kunsthochschulen” concern themselves with the arts in their pure (music, theatre and the fine arts) and/or applied (graphics and design) forms or with film, radio and television, the “Fachhochschulen” (Universities of Applied Sciences) are “higher education for working life”. The degree programmes they offer are more closely attuned to the demands of commerce and industry, their focus lying in the fields of technology, media, business studies, information science and social studies.