About Us Macromedia as a company

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Our company

Macromedia University is a state-recognised university with private sponsorship from Macromedia GmbH. It is headquartered in Stuttgart and its largest administrative location can be found in Munich, where Macromedia GmbH was founded in 1993.

The managing director of Macromedia GmbH is Dr. Reimar Müller-Thum, who took over responsibilities in 2013 from company founders Herbert Schmid-Eickhoff and Sabine Terjung. The change in management is also linked to change of ownership: Since 2013, the company belongs to the Paris-based international education group Galileo Global Education, which is now majority-owned by the L’Oréal family and the Canadian pension fund CPP Investments.

Galileo Network

Galileo Network members benefit from a wide range of partnerships and synergies. For example, Macromedia GmbH’s academic portfolio welcomes new educational brands such as its Fashion Design programme in cooperation with the French fashion school Atelier Chardon Savard, and its Acting programme in cooperation with the Parisian acting school Cours Florent. Galileo’s integration of comparable German outlets such as the hKDM University of Art, Design and Music Freiburg and the Vitruvius University of Applied Sciences Leipzig help to extend Macromedia’s spheres of competency. In 2019, the PFH Private University of Applied Sciences Göttingen joined Macromedia University and Macromedia Academy to become part of the German Galileo network, completing Galileo’s access to the German education market with its distinctive expertise in the field of distance learning courses.

To Galileo universities
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Employees

Macromedia GmbH employs more than 400 full-time and part-time staff members. Every second employee works either in university teaching or in an academic function; all others ensure smooth processes in student and campus management, accounting and controlling, prospective student communication and student counselling, as well as in specific university service departments such as the International Office, the Career and Alumni Services and the libraries.

To employees

Establishment as “Media University”

The reference to media is an integral part of Macro-MEDIA’s name. Especially in the first two decades, typical “media professions” characterise the portfolio of Macromedia Academy and Macromedia University of Applied Sciences (since 2006). In addition to the fields of multimedia media design and media production, this also includes the broad field of media management. Specialisation options fall within the classic branches of the media and publishing industry such as music, sports, film, events, but also within cross-sectional tasks such as marketing and communication.

The catalysts for the establishment of the Macromedia University were the Bologna Reforms of 1999 and the accompanying deregulation in the German higher education system. Macromedia University also benefited from a political initiative to make vocational training professions more academic. With its vocational undergraduate degree programmes in the early years, it is a typical representative of this private university segment, but at the same time develops a reputation as a player in applied research. The fast-growing faculty of the Macromedia University includes active media and communication experts who are highly regarded by the public and academic communities.

Repositioning as a “University for Shaping Digital Transformation”

As digitalisation advances, the media industry is experiencing tremendous changes. Mobile media consumption, diversification, and fragmentation are revolutionising the media landscape and leading to far-reaching changes in revenue and value creation models in all sectors of the economy, not just in media. The demands on young professionals are changing accordingly. Macromedia University is reacting, even anticipating, this paradigm shift. As a “University for Shaping Digital Transformation”, it is repositioning itself and consistently aligns all curricula with the acquisition of skills for a sustainable future.