Founded in 2010 as the Brand Academy – Hochschule für Design und Kommunikation, it changed its name to Brand University of Applied Sciences in 2019. Focused on interdisciplinarity, innovation, and the creation of value through and for brands, BU boasts an international team of experienced professors, lecturers, experts and practitioners.

The Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design has been nurturing the artistic and creative ambitions of its students and staff for over 250 years. Offering 22 programmes in Architecture, Arts, Art Education, Design and Conservation – Art History, the university promotes transdisciplinarity, diversity and cultural openmindednes with around 900 students.

Fachhochschule Münster was founded in 1971 and has since grown into one of Germany’s largest public universities for applied sciences. Based in the city of Münster, with an additional campus located in Steinfurt, the university affords practice-oriented, international and interdisciplinary education to more than 15,000 students.

The Folkwang University of the Arts is one of the only institutions in North-Rhine Westphalia focusing on music, theater, dance, design and academic studies. Having delivered a dynamic curriculum since 1927, the university is a leading force in the interdisciplinary cooperation between the arts. Its participation in this year’s RIMOWA Design Prize will be carried out by the “Office for Society in Motion”.

Founded in 1994, where it became Bavaria’s most successful new university for applied sciences, Technische Hochschule Deggendorf now serves over 8,000 students, with 34% coming from international backgrounds. By actively transferring its varied curriculum back to the regional economy, it remains at the forefront of pressing economic and social trends.

Located in Kiel, Muthesius University is the only art university in the State of Schleswig-Holstein. Steadfast in its goal to promote art, design, and a variety of innovative spatial strategies, the university underpins its largely creative curriculum with highly-focused research and development projects.

First established as a craftsman’s school, HfG Offenbach has a tradition stretching back to the year 1832. Shortly afterwards, it sharpened its focus on practical arts, crafts and theoretical subjects. Inspired by the training and research models of Bauhaus and the Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm, the university practices future-oriented teaching. Its participation in this year’s RIMOWA Design Prize will be carried out by the “Design Institute of Technology”.

Having developed since the early-1990s in Europe, the United States and Japan, HfG Karlsruhe has carved out an incredibly diverse and impactful curriculum. At the university, communication design, product design, media art, exhibition design and scenography seamlessly interact with art research, media theory and media philosophy.

The Faculty of Design at Hochschule Niederrhein has evolved from a rich tradition of design education and training dating back more than 100 years. Seeing design as a means of actively shaping the world and its societies, the university actively addresses the connection between humans and their artificially-created environments.

Since its foundation, FH Aachen has established itself as one of the biggest universities of applied sciences in the country. Catering to more than 15,000 students across Aachen and Jülich, the university prides itself on practice-oriented education, with a curriculum that traverses design, research, engineering and technology.

Founded in 1989, The Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Saar is the Saarland’s only university for art and design, offering its varied curriculum to around 500 students. Since its creation, the university has developed into one of the most important creative training centers in the greater region of Saarland-Western Palatinate-Alsace-Lorraine-Luxembourg-Wallonia.

Founded in 1992, HTW Dresden is the second-largest university in the capital of the state of Saxony. Delivering 43 study programmes such as agriculture, horticulture, landscape planning and development, the university caters to 5,000 international students; a number that allows manageability and facilitates personal dialogue in individual courses.

With three campuses located in Bernburg, Dessau and Köthen, Hochschule Anhalt has pioneered innovative research and teaching methodologies for more than 30 years. With its holistic approach, the university prides itself on helping shape the life and work of an international student body, guided under the motto, “Lively. Innovative. Tied together.”

Situated at the heart of the state capital, mAHS, media Akademie - Hochschule Stuttgart, has been training specialists in animation design, game design and industrial design since 2015. With all courses characterized by their highly practical nature, the university prides itself on preparing tomorrow’s talent for the real world.

The Köln International School of Design (KISD) is an integrative and interdisciplinary institute of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences at TH Köln. For more than 30 years, KISD has been offering its students the possibility to explore and create the diversity and complexity of design in a profound and systematic manner.