Prof. Dr. Stefan Stürmer

Prof. Dr. Stefan Stürmer will be Rector of the FernUniversität in Hagen from March 1, 2025. He was elected Rector by the University Election Assembly on December 5, 2024 and appointed by the Minister for Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Ina Brandes, on February 25, 2025.

Previously, Stürmer was Vice Rector for Teaching and Studies at the FernUniversität since March 2, 2022, Founding Dean of the Faculty of Psychology from 2018 to 2021, and Deputy Chairman of the Senate of the FernUniversität from 2016 to 2018. He is a member of the management team of the CATALPA research center and has been a member of the management of the Center for Learning and Innovation since 2021.

In 2007, he was appointed Professor of Social Psychology at what is now the Faculty of Psychology at the FernUniversität. After studying psychology at the universities of Leipzig and Münster, he received his doctorate from the Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel in 2000. After a one-year research stay as a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Minnesota (USA), he returned to Kiel in 2002, where he held a junior professorship in applied social psychology until 2007.

His psychological research focuses on the analysis of group processes and intergroup research as well as on the areas of diversity and distance education. He is the academic director of the certificate course in psychology for legal professions. Prof. Stürmer was and is significantly involved in numerous projects to research and further develop teaching, for example the Diversity Inclusion project in media-supported distance learning (funded by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia), TransRegio E-Ass (university consortium DH-NRW) or the innovation cluster NOVA.ea (funded by the Foundation for Innovation in University Teaching, in association with RWTH Aachen, TH Cologne and the German Institute for Adult Education).

He is an active member of national and international scientific organizations. From 2015 to 2019 he was spokesperson for the Social Psychology Division of the German Society for Psychology.

Email: stefan.stuermer
Phone: +49 2331 987-2776
Address: Universitätsstraße 33, D-58097 Hagen, Germany