Practical application vs. science using computer science at universities of applied sciences as an example

Universities of Applied Sciences (UASs) are geared towards practical applications. For some study fields, this makes the connection to science unclear. Computer science programmes at UASs provide a good example of this issue. Throughout Germany, computer science programmes at UASs rarely explicitly reference science in their module handbooks, and the bachelor theses examined for this work rarely include scientific sources in their bibliographies. In addition to the orientation of UASs, these observations probably stem from the fact that computer science has an ambiguous scientific self-concept. This paper suggests that it is all the more necessary to have a discourse on the philosophy of science that helps put practical application within a productive scientific frame of reference.