The Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI), named after one of the founders of SAP, is a unique phenomenon in the German university landscape. Academically structured as the independent Faculty of Digital Engineering at the (public) University of Potsdam, HPI unites excellent research and teaching with the advantages of a privately financed institute and a tuition-free study program. The Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering is, in legal terms, a gGmbH (a non-profit Ltd.). It was founded in October 1998 as part of a public-private partnership and is funded by the non-profit Hasso Plattner Foundation for Software Systems Engineering, which is also the sole interest holder in the company.

The HPI in Potsdam is the only university faculty in Germany where a degree program in "IT Systems Engineering" is completely and privately financed.

HPI offers a handful of innovation-oriented and practically-based studies, e.g. in IT-Systems Engineering, Data Engineering and Cybersecurity plus an English-taught master's program in Digital Health, In addition, HPI offers a supplemental certificate program in the innovation method of Design Thinking (cf. HPI School of Design Thinking).