Your Master Studies at the HfG

Unfort­u­na­tely, the online appli­ca­tion portal is curr­ently unavailable due to tech­nical issues at the Baden-Würt­­te­m­­berg Higher Educa­tion Service Center (HSZ).

Infor­ma­tion for Applicants

Appli­ca­tions will be accepted until November 15, 2026, at the latest. If you would like to apply now, please use the appli­ca­tion form. Send it along with the other required docu­ments via email to

bewerbungseingang@hfg-gmuend.de

Application Form

The master program Stra­tegic Design is conse­cu­tive. The study program will be a good fit for you if you have already completed a univer­sity program (Bachelor, certi­fi­ca­tion, or other similar degree) as a desi­gner, or in subjects related to media. In your bachelor studies, you should have earned 210 ECTS credits. For bachelor graduates from six-semester programs with 180 ECTS credits, they will have the possi­bi­lity to make up the missing ECTS credits through parti­ci­pa­ting in events and projects at the univer­sity before starting their first semester of the master.

Wir nehmen zweimal im Jahr Studienanfänger*innen auf. Bis zum 15. Mai bzw. 15. November (Ausschluss­frist) muss die Regis­trie­rung und Bewer­bung über E‑Mail einge­gangen sein. Bitte halte folgende Doku­mente in digi­taler Form für deine Bewer­bung bereit:

• Tabel­la­ri­scher Lebens­lauf
• Beglau­bigte Kopie der Hoch­schul­zu­gangs­be­rech­ti­gung
• Beglau­bigte Kopie des berufs­qua­li­fi­zie­renden Hochschulabschlusses
• Exma­tri­ku­la­tions-/Studi­en­ver­laufs­be­schei­ni­gung/​Transcript of Records
• Ein Pass­bild
• Nach­weis über Berufs­aus­bil­dung, Berufs­praxis oder Prak­tikum
• Deine Projektskizze
• Ausge­wählte Arbeits­proben
• Optio­nales Moti­va­ti­ons­schreiben (ca. 1 DIN A4 Seite)

Bewirbst du dich mit einem auslän­di­schen Hoch­schul­ab­schluss, benö­tigen wir zusätz­lich folgende Unterlagen:

• Nach­weis über Kennt­nisse der deut­schen Sprache (TestDaF 4/DSH 2)
• Aner­ken­nung deiner Hochschulzugangsberechtigung/​deines berufs­qua­li­fi­zie­renden Abschlusses durch das Studi­en­kolleg Konstanz
• Bewerber*in aus China: Beschei­ni­gung der Akade­mi­schen Prüf­stelle (APS) des Kultur­re­fe­rats der Deut­schen Botschaft in Peking über Echt­heit der Unterlagen

With your appli­ca­tion in the online portal, you should also submit a project outline. This should be around 2 – 3 pages, a maximum of 500 words and can include pictures.

For this, choose a problem related to society that you would like to solve or address with the help of a design project. Prepare an accom­panying project outline with contents that meet scien­tific stan­dards. The chosen topic is only rele­vant for your appli­ca­tion and is not required to be the topic of your master thesis. If you are applying for the second time, we ask you to please prepare a new project outline.

Goals
Explain the concept, the content, and design, scien­tific, or tech­nical goals of the project. Name concrete appli­ca­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties like poten­tial uses, func­tion­a­lity, and target audiences.

Methods
Present which design or scien­tific methods you would use, and justify them with regard to your solu­tion to the problem. 

Content/​Formal Imple­men­ta­tion
Describe the planned or poten­tial result of the product or project, espe­ci­ally the content and formal results. 

Literature/​Sources
Attach a works cited page to your outline to list all sources (lite­ra­tures and/​or online sources) that you used for the project outline.

In addi­tion, we would like to see some of your previous design work that is aligned with the content of the study program. Please put toge­ther a careful selec­tion of your projects that reflect your skills and your enga­ge­ment with the goals and content of our study program. The PDF file contai­ning your work samples should not exceed 10 pages and a file size of 20 MB. Please note that links to external port­fo­lios, such as websites, will not be accepted.

Please note: We only view the work samples on a digital screen. Please opti­mize your content accor­dingly. The work samples will not be printed out, so we do not need your port­folio in printed form by post.

The selec­tion inter­view is the second part of the selec­tion process. If you are admitted to the selec­tion inter­view, you will receive an invi­ta­tion at least seven days in advance. The inter­views will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 17^th and 18^th in Schwä­bisch Gmünd.

Unfort­u­na­tely, the online appli­ca­tion portal is curr­ently unavailable due to tech­nical issues at the Baden-Würt­­te­m­­berg Higher Educa­tion Service Center (HSZ). An appli­ca­tion is curr­ently only possible through E‑Mail.

Infor­ma­tion for Appli­cants

Appli­ca­tions will be accepted until November 15, 2026, at the latest. If you would like to apply now, please use the appli­ca­tion form. Send it along with the other required docu­ments via email to

The appli­ca­tion periods are always from early April through mid-May and from early October through mid-November. The appli­ca­tion period for the 2027 summer semester begins on October 6, 2026.

bewerbungseingang@hfg-gmuend.de

Die Bewer­bungs­phasen sind immer von Anfang April bis Mitte Mai und von Anfang Oktober bis Mitte November.

Bewerbungsbogen

We will publish your results as soon as possible in the portal. The semester will begin in the first week of October or middle of March, depen­ding on the semester.