Studying Art

Visionary thinking and design

The BURG offers people working in the arts a broad spectrum of subject-specific and theoretical teaching and a place where they can test and professionalise their skills in intellectual exchange and practical collaboration with university lecturers and fellow students. Today, more than 1,000 students are enrolled at the university, which was founded in 1915.

The BURG encourages visionary thinking and design beyond exploitation contexts, offers free spaces and promotes individual paths. With their ideas and works, their visions and positions, the students should contribute to the social discourse as mature, critical and independent individuals. A broad-based basic education in theory and practice, excellently equipped laboratories and workshops, research and projects - also in cooperation with institutions and companies - and interdisciplinary networking and discourse form the framework for this.

The study programme

The Art Faculty at BURG offers eleven fields of study in the study courses Painting/Graphics, Sculpture and Art/Teaching. The degree programme ends with a “Diplom“; in the Art/Teaching degree programme, graduates receive the First State Examination.

The standard period of study is 10 semesters, of which 4 semesters are completed in the foundation course and 6 semesters in the main course. The two-year teaching of the basics in the foundation course provides students with the starting point for intensive study in their chosen degree programme. The basics are studied interdisciplinarily across all degree programmes.

All students are provided with fixed studio spaces where they can experiment and explore their own formal language. Every year in mid-July, at the end of the academic year, the workrooms are transformed into exhibition spaces for the annual exhibition, where the students present their projects and works.

International network of the Burg

The university promotes exchange and maintains contacts with numerous art and design colleges and universities worldwide. The cooperation with partners from culture, business and private or public institutions complements the study programme in a subject-related manner.

Network Europe

The Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle is integrated into various international networks. It has a wide range of contacts in Western Europe and with universities in Central and Eastern Europe. Within the framework of the ERASMUS programme, the Burg maintains cooperation agreements with approximately 53 partner schools in 20 countries all over Europe, for example with art colleges in Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Latvia, France, Greece, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Hungary, Great Britain, Turkey and Portugal.

Cumulus network

Since spring 2005, the BURG has been a partner in the Cumulus network of European universities. Cumulus is a network of 165 art and design colleges. The aim of the universities involved is to generate a dynamic and flexible academic forum that links the best international training institutes. International projects, easy transfer among the universities and student exchange are the main focus.

ELIA

The BURG is a member of ELIA (European League of Institutes of the Arts).

International Co-operations

The Burg also cooperates directly with a large number of art colleges outside Europe, for example in Canada, Japan, the USA, China, India, Vietnam and Cuba.

Our partner schools in the Erasmus programme

Our partner schools in the Promos programme