English-medium masters’ programmes at an Austrian university of applied sciences: Attitudes, experiences and challenges

English-medium instruction has become a common approach to increase the internationalisation opportunities of European universities and the global employability of their graduates. This article presents the results of a questionnaire survey (n = 8 lecturers and 66 students) and lecturer interviews (n = 8) at three established business and engineering masters’ degree programmes at the FH JOANNEUM University of Applied Sciences, Graz, Austria. The purpose of the research was to identify stakeholders’ attitudes, experiences and challenges regarding English-medium higher education in order to propose measures that facilitate the implementation of English-taught masters’ programmes. The results showed that in principle lecturers and students favour English-medium instruction. The perceived need for support measures was lower than expected but challenges exist and might be alleviated by a range of concentrated efforts. Major areas of concern are reciprocal feelings of dissatisfaction among stakeholders, student workload, different levels of students’ prior knowledge and a reduction in the amount of content that can be taught. The article confirms the significance of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) instruction in the curriculum for students and recommends the provision of accompanying measures and resources fostering teacher development based on voluntary participation and reward schemes.

► Students perceive benefits of English-medium instruction for language improvement.
► Certain reciprocal dissatisfaction with lectures perceptible among stakeholders.
► Lecturers and students name spoken interaction and writing as challenging skills.
► Perceived need for assistance among stakeholders lower than assumed.
► Support measures should be based on voluntary participation and incentives.