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Hochschule Darmstadt (h_da)

Programme information

The Media Department at the University of Applied Sciences in Darmstadt was instituted in 2002 to research and teach in the field of digital media. The programme of studies is aimed at the academic training of later experts in a media industry which has seen a rapid development of new occupational fields and production strategies due to the ever increasing influence of digital information and communication technologies. 
Within the progress of reaccreditation the programme «Digital Media» is offered with an eligible pathway of «Animation and Game» which started in 2007.
Located in the middle of the Rhein-Main area around Frankfurt, which is one of the main centres for the German video game industry, we decided to focus the animation courses towards the field of computer games, concentrating on the interaction of animation and games.
The programme is offered jointly by the German University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt (h_da) and the Irish Cork Institute of Technology (CIT), a cooperation that extends back to over some 15 years.
The highly project-orientated learning takes place in facilities like Computer-labs, AV-Studios, Usability-Labs or Motion Capture-Studio.

Degree category / length of studies
Bachelor of Arts in «Digital Media» 3 years (Hochschule Darmstadt)
Master of Arts in «Media Direction» 2 years (Hochschule Darmstadt)
Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in «Multimedia» 4 years (Cork Institute of Technology)
Master of Arts in «Media Design» 1 year (Cork Institute of Technology)

Programme categories
Interactive Media
Animation and Game
Video
Sound

Number of teachers
20 teachers

Number of students
60 students (Pathway: Animation and Games)

Number of foreign students
15 foreign students

Entry requirements
Entry requirements for Bachelor:
Higher Education Entrance Qualification (HEEQ); General or Specialized or HEEQ for AUS cf. Sect. 8.7, or foreign equivalence, entrance examination according to BBPO

Programme description 
The bachelor programme «Digital Media» and the master programme «Media Direction» are based on an interdisciplinary teaching of the main subjects design, technology and economics. These are being complemented by cultural backgrounds and law studies.
The students directly apply for one of the four pathway study possibilities, Interactive Media, Animation and Game, Video or Sound.
A pathway consists of courses, tailored to the educational demands of the selected media discipline in the subjects media project, media design, media technology and media informatics. Furthermore the subjects media culture and media management offer overall media competencies.
In the first year the students learn various media and experience the typical contents and working processes of the chosen pathway. The initial semesters supply the basic knowledge and skills in all media areas to realize digital media products and media systems.
In the second year the students deepen their knowledge and abilities with application-oriented and practical tasks and projects. Professional working techniques will be learned increasingly. Therefore there will be an industrial placement of eight weeks incorporated in the programme at the end of year 2 in order to explore the acquired competencies in a practical environment.
In the third year the students broaden their acquired knowledge and abilities with highly professional tasks and projects. At the same time they explore innovative approaches within current media and learn that professional media concepts and media developments are subject to a permanently changing media industry. They learn to develop their own professionalism continuously and demonstrate their capacities in the final Bachelor project. Students are being trained in conceptualization, design, development and marketing of animation and digital media in semesterized projects to be worked on in teams of different sizes, overseen by an interdisciplinary group of lecturers. This project strand will intensify and integrate the insights into the contents taught in lectures and practicals and provide hands on experience in industrial workflows. An industrial placement phase will further strengthen these insights.
Modules from the Animation and Game pathway include:
Animation and Game Principles, Concept, Character- and Environment-Design. Animation and Game Narratives, Animation and Game Design, 2D and 3D – Animation.
The courses are taught in English.

Philosophy

The main aim of the programme lies in an interdisciplinary media education that offers at the earliest possible point in time a qualification for a career in the media industry to all the students. One of the factors to be taken into account is that the media industry under the influence of the arising of media technology developments – like digital production processes, broad bandwidths or UMTS – that started in the nineties still undergoes a changing process. The course’s objectives therefore are multidisciplinary, and focus on the ability to work in teams, internationalization, concept orientation and the ability to adapt oneself to new situations.
During the first years of the digital media revolution, the media industry desperately asked for media designers and media producers with generalist multi-disciplinary knowledge, who should be able to manage all the new tasks of the different disciplines, which affect the design and production of a media product or solution. This task is still valid today. Some fields in the area of digital media have grown to established fields with demands towards a stronger expert knowledge in these special areas.
The programmes therefore combine gene-ralist education with the possibility for each student to decide for a specialization in a certain field of media.
In order to provide and ensure a sufficient consolidation of the media application fields and in order to learn the particular language, grammar and techniques of media in a professional manner, the study programme is structured into four different pathways: Interactive Media, Animation and Games, Video, Sound (S), whereas Animation and Game covers conception and production of 2D animations, 3D animations and computer games.