Bachelor of Fine Arts University of Fine Arts Hamburg

The interdisciplinary degree programme Bachelor of Fine Arts encompasses all artistic and scholarly disciplines represented at HFBK Hamburg. Students have access to all areas of specialisation and all workshops.

As part of the Bachelor’s programme, students are free to decide whether they wish to combine different departments or concentrate on a single field. This openness offers a high degree of flexibility and enables the development of an individual artistic and/or scholarly profile.

In the first two semesters, students receive close guidance that familiarises them with various methods and forms of work and provides an initial orientation for their further studies. Later on, learning and research are shaped by the students’ own artistic projects, and their individual artistic approaches emerge through the interplay of practical and conceptual work. Throughout this process, they receive intensive support from the professors in individual and group discussions. At the same time, the broadly based academic curriculum encourages students to think through their artistic development projects with precision, to deepen them theoretically, to articulate them reflectively, and to present them convincingly. A scholarly focus is also possible.

In the numerous artistic workshops, students can acquire knowledge of materials and fields of application within the various disciplines and develop the necessary craft and technical skills. They learn to create their own works whose experimental character generates aesthetic arguments, statements, and intensities. Students can acquire manual techniques and skills that allow different artistic ideas to be articulated, refined, and further developed. They gain knowledge of art history and theoretical concepts that enable reflection on the status of their own work and inspire as well as intensify artistic productivity.

Students with a scholarly focus additionally learn to formulate theoretical problems, develop arguments, and work out theses or conclusions. The programme also includes the acquisition of skills for presenting one’s own work publicly and showcasing it across different media. The standard period of study is eight semesters and concludes with the Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA).

Each year, the application period starts at the beginning of February and ends at the beginning of March.

Students who demonstrate a special artistic aptitude in an entrance examination in accordance with Section 37 (3) of the Hamburg University Act are entitled to study the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree programme.

The entrance examination committee decides on the basis of the submitted work samples whether the special artistic aptitude is present.

In addition to the special artistic aptitude, proof of sufficient German language skills by international students must be provided.

Summer semester 2026: 371 EUR

https://hfbk-hamburg.de/en/information/funding-opportunities/scholarships

https://hfbk-hamburg.de/en/information/professionalization