Media Campus alumna among the finalists for the EUPRERA Master's Thesis Award 2026

A great success for the faculty of Media: our alumna Esther-Lea Schlegel has reached the final of the prestigious ‘EUPRERA Master’s Thesis Award for Excellence 2026’ with her Master’s thesis. The European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA) has selected a total of eight outstanding theses from across Europe as finalists.

Esther-Lea Schlegel was nominated in the ‘Theoretical Impact’ category. Her Master’s thesis is entitled ‘Sustainability Communication in Times of Change: The Need for Strategic Adaptation’ and was supervised by Prof. Dr Lars Rademacher at the faculty of Media at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences.

The EUPRERA Award recognises excellent academic work in the field of public relations and communication management each year. The finalists come from renowned universities in Germany, Austria, Norway, Sweden and the UK. The winners will be announced at the EUPRERA Congress on 18 September 2026 in Málaga.

“We are delighted about this international recognition for our graduate and the work carried out at the faculty,” says Prof. Dr Sebastian Pranz, coordinator of the Media, Technology and Society study programme. The nomination demonstrates that current issues in strategic sustainability communication are also attracting considerable interest internationally.

The faculty of Media warmly congratulates Esther-Lea Schlegel on this success and is keeping its fingers crossed for the awards ceremony.