Since it was founded in 1991, Potsdam University of Applied Sciences (FHP) has become an important participant in the knowledge landscape of the region. The university offers a diverse range of study programmes in the following faculties: Social and Educational Sciences, STADT | BAU | KULTUR, Civil Engineering, Design, and Information Science. With around 160 employees and 220 lecturers, at the present time we are guiding around 3,600 students as they follow over 30 Bachelor’s and Master’s study programmes offering lasting career prospects. Our strengths are clear structures, small seminar groups, innovative digital courses, a practical orientation, interdisciplinarity and close relationships with regional, national and international partners.
The Faculty of Design is seeking to fill the following post on the programme in Communication Design for the 2023/24 winter semester:
The post is a full-time position with eighteen semester periods of teaching per week.
We are seeking an individual who is interested in researching and communicating design in an editorial context in a systematic, comprehensive and groundbreaking way. Your approach to working and teaching will reflect your commitment to content and narrative and you will possess a marked sensitivity for working with and on text. You will develop formats that are suitable for being published in analogue and digital form and in the public sphere. You will have proven expertise in the presentation and dramaturgy of typography, illustration and photography in multilayered relationships and structures.
This professorship has an important place in the context of building the profile and further developing the Faculty of Design. Corresponding dedication, as well as a readiness to engage in interdisciplinary cooperation with related fields of study, in Bachelor's degree programme projects as well as projects on the Master’s programme in Design, are required, as is being prepared to undertake artistic and scientific activities in research and transfer.
Our Faculty of Design offers a combination of the disciplines of Communication, Interface and Product Design and European Media Studies that is unique in Germany, superbly equipped workshops and an open and supportive atmosphere plus a balanced mix of classes consisting of seminars, project work, lectures and field trips. You can look forward to a lively and interdisciplinary university environment!
We expect you to produce independent design work that is appropriate for the subject area. You will have well-developed technical expertise and will be able to demonstrate this with up to five selected publications and examples of your work. We require a particular ability for integrating and working in a team.
Your active involvement in strengthening the focal area of editorial design in teaching, research and transfer is of great importance to us. You will also have focal areas of research interest that are linked with one of the profile areas of Potsdam University of Applied Sciences. Moreover, you will also endeavour to test and develop new didactic concepts. Together we hope to expand our interdisciplinary, cross-departmental courses that are oriented towards the didactic principle of research-based learning and also increase the proportion of English-language and digital courses. We hope to be able to count on a high level of commitment from you in these areas.
The conditions of employment are, in accordance with § 41 of the Brandenburg Universities Act, a completed university degree, teaching proficiency, special aptitude for artistic work, and particular accomplishments in the application and development of artistic knowledge and methods over the course of at least three years of professional practice. Of these, at least two years must have been outside of the academic sphere.
Provided that the post holder meets the relevant requirements, it may be possible to convert the employment relationship to civil servant status. Note: in the state of Brandenburg, alongside a basic salary, "W" salaries include additional basic performance components. More detailed information on this and the formal conditions of employment in the Brandenburg Universities Act can be found here:
Potsdam University of Applied Sciences values the diversity of its members and is committed to equality of opportunity irrespective of gender, nationality, ethnic or social origin, religion/world view, disability, age or sexual orientation and identity. We seek to achieve a balanced gender ratio in all areas. In research and teaching in particular, we therefore expressly encourage qualified female candidates to apply. In areas where women are under-represented, they will be preferred where equal suitability for the post is demonstrated. This also applies to applications from people with an impairment. Please advise of any impairment in your letter of application. Applications from abroad and from candidates with a migration background are expressly welcomed.
Your application should comprise a curriculum vitae, copies of certificates, your artistic portfolio, a list of publications and evidence of professional and teaching activity. Your qualities and skills as a designer will be evident from your portfolio, as will your particular aptitude for artistic work (for example through awards, publications, symposia, reviews etc.) and your particular achievements in professional practice. Furthermore, your international and interdisciplinary networking will also be illustrated. Please also name three or four referees whom the appointment committee may contact. Later on in the application process we may ask you to deliver a demonstration lecture and a presentation on the development of the subject area.
We look forward to receiving your application, which we ask you to submit to us by 15.02.2023 exclusively via our online application portal (). You are welcome to forward a printed portfolio and publications to our postal address
Dean of the Faculty of Design Fachhochschule Potsdam Kiepenheuerallee 5 D-14469 Potsdam, Germany
Should you have any questions, you may contact either the Office of the Dean or Professor Sven Völker (Dean of Studies in Communication Design) on or Tel. +49-331-580-4401/02 (Dean’s Office).