Prof. Dr. Stefan Stürmer

Prof. Dr. Stefan Stürmer has been Professor of Social Psychology at the Faculty of Psychology at the FernUniversität since 2007. After studying psychology at the Universities of Leipzig and Münster, he received his doctorate from Kiel University (CAU) 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 took up a junior professorship in Applied Social Psychology (a post he held until 2007).

His psychological research focuses on the analysis of group processes and intergroup research as well as on diversity and distance education. He is the academic director of the Psychology for Legal Professions certificate program. Professor Stürmer has been closely involved in several projects focusing on researching and developing teaching: for example, the project Diversity Inclusion in Media-Supported Distance Learning (funded by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia), TransRegio E-Ass (DH-NRW university consortium), or the innovation cluster NOVA.ea (funded by the foundation Innovation in University Teaching, in association with RWTH Aachen, TH Cologne, and the German Institute for Adult Education).

Stefan Stürmer was the first dean of the Faculty of Psychology from 2018 to 2021, and previously served for many years as executive director of the Institute of Psychology and as deputy chair of the FernUniversität Senate from 2016 to 2018. He is a member of the executive board of the CATALPA research center and has been part of the leadership of the Center for Learning and Innovation (site in German only) since 2021. He is an active member of several national and international scientific organizations. From 2015 to 2019, he was spokesperson for the expert group “Social Psychology” of the German Psychological Society.

Stefan Stürmer has been Vice-President for Teaching and Studies at the FernUniversität since 2 March 2022 and acting President of the university since 1 December 2024.

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