With a ceremony, the Macromedia University of Applied Sciences bids farewell to its President Prof. Dr. Jürgen Faust today, Thursday, 20.2.2020. The design professor came to the private university in 2006, followed by positions as head of study and dean. He was appointed president in 2013. Prof. Dr. Jürgen Faust’s term of office stands for a consistent internationalisation of the university both in terms of academic content and organisation. His successor in office is Prof. Dr. Dr. Castulus Kolo, the former Vice President for Academic Policy and Research.
"I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Jürgen Faust for his services to the Macromedia University," said Dr. Reimar Müller-Thum, Managing Director of Macromedia GmbH. "For seven years, he headed the university as president, and before that he had already made his mark on it as professor of design, head of studies, dean and vice president of research and teaching. Jürgen Faust is leaving the university at a time of dynamic growth. Never before have there been more students enrolled at our seven university locations. We wish him all the best for the next phase of his life."
The presidency of Prof. Dr. Jürgen Faust is characterized by a clear internationalization strategy. Even before taking office, Jürgen Faust had pushed ahead with the integration of a compulsory semester abroad in the Bachelor’s programs, initiated the establishment of a worldwide network of exclusive partner universities and expanded the English-language study programs. In addition, he had accompanied the transfer of the formerly owner-managed Macromedia University of Applied Sciences into the international education group Galileo Global Education and had subsequently used the international network consistently for new cooperative degree programs. "Without Jürgen Faust, the orientation of the Macromedia University of Applied Sciences towards the international education and labour market would have been different. To him we owe important impulses from the anglo-american university didactics and a durable location in the international Design discourse", says Müller-Thum.
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Faust was also able to set lasting accents in the design of the artistic-creative study profile. From his work in the USA, the design professor brought the concept of Design Thinking to the Macromedia University of Applied Sciences, which still shapes the Macromedia-specific bridging of creativity and management topics today. By diversifying the Macromedia faculties, he also created the prerequisites for sharpening the artistic profile of the private university – with courses such as "Fine Arts (B.A.)", "Photography and Moving Image (B.A.)" or, as in the "Acting (B.A.)" course at the Cours Florent, sometimes within the framework of his own educational brands.
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Faust is a designer, artist and scientist. In 1985 he was co-founder and lecturer of the Kunstseminar Metzingen (today private university of applied sciences Schwäbisch Hall). In 1999 he was appointed professor at the Cleveland Institute of Art, where he was Dean of Integrated Media from 2003. In 2006 he moved to CEDIM in Mexico as Dean for Academic Affairs. At the same time, he developed the Master’s programme Business Landscaping for Monterrey Tecnologico, which he supervised as co-director for four years. At the end of 2006 he accepted the call of the newly founded MFM – Macromedia University of Applied Sciences for Media, today’s Macromedia University, and took over a professorship of design at the Munich location. At the same time, from 2006 to 2011, he assumed responsibility as Chief Academic Officer for the Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan, commuting between Milan and Munich. In 2008, the Macromedia faculty elected Prof. Faust as Dean, and in 2009 he also took over the management of the Master’s degree course in Media and Design. From 2010 to 2013 he held the office of Vice President Research and Teaching in personal union, before being appointed President of the Macromedia University of Applied Sciences in 2013.
(IMH)