Helmut Hoyer

Rector of FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Helmut Hoyer was elected Rector of FernUniversität in Hagen in 1997 and has since been re-elected three times. He started his fourth term of office in 2010.  Before his first election as Rector he had already acted as a university manager in his roles as Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering of FernUniversität and as a Vice Rector Planning and Finance. Between 1999 and 2008 he was Acting President of the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) and between 2001 and 2002 he was Chairman of the Rectors’ Conference of North Rhine-Westphalia. In 2002 he became a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology and 2004 – 2006 he acted as Academic Director of the Centre for eCompetence at Universities in North Rhine-Westphalia (CeC). In 2005 he was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany. Since 2007 Prof. Hoyer has been member of the University Council of Bamberg University.

Helmut Hoyer studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Karlsruhe and acquired his doctorate in engineering at FernUniversität in 1984. After  3 years of research at the Institute of Robotics Research of the University of Dortmund, where he headed the group 'Robot Control and Multi-Robots Systems', he returned to FernUniversität as a Full Professor and Chair of Control Systems Engineering. His research activities focus on robotics and assistive technologies for elderly people and people with disabilities. One main objective of his rectorate is the use of Information and Communication Technology in teaching (Virtual University) and the positioning of FernUniversität in the future national and global university landscape.