Archive notice: This article was originally published on July 15, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
A total of 289 prospective students applied for a place at Saarbrücken’s university of art and design for the 2008/2009 winter semester.
Last year, there were 246 applicants, which had already represented a 10 percent increase compared with applications for the 2006/2007 winter semester.
“This development, which is extremely encouraging for our university, demonstrates,” said Prof. Ivica Maksimovic, Rector of HBKsaar, “that the forward-looking decisions made in recent years, both in staffing and in the orientation of our educational offering, have increased our appeal regionally, nationally, and internationally.”
Increased demand can be seen for all degree programs offered at HBKsaar—Fine Arts, Product and Communication Design, teacher-training programs in art, and the Media Art and Design program introduced for the 2007/2008 winter semester.
Applicants are showing particularly strong interest in the Communication Design degree program, represented at HBKsaar by Professors Indra Kupferschmid and Ivica Maksimovic. This high demand is certainly connected to the recognized quality of communication-designer training at Saarbrücken’s university of art and design, which achieved a leading position in 2006 in a nationwide ranking of design degree programs initiated by the news magazine FOCUS in cooperation with the Art Directors Club for Germany (ADC). With its placement among the top ten universities, HBKsaar ranks as one of Germany’s leading institutions for communication-design education.
Demand also remains strong for the art teacher-training programs, which have once again been offered at the Saar University of Fine Arts in cooperation with Saarland University since the 2005/2006 winter semester.
Applicant numbers for the Fine Arts degree program have also risen slightly. Prospective students are likewise showing growing interest in the Media Art and Design program, which integrates different qualifications and skills from the Fine Arts and Design departments in the field of media art and design.
