Higher education institutions identified as ‘technical universities’ enjoy considerable status in many countries. Yet studies of boundary negotiations from a range of settings suggest that opportunities to transform into a broader, research-based university often takes precedence over the alternative vision of remaining or moving towards becoming a focused technical university. In this chapter, we discuss alternative explanations for the lacklustre appeal of the latter type of institutional template, and outline a roadmap for how the historical legacy of the technical university may be cultivated.