Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle

Mission Statement

The five departments with their bachelor’s and master’s courses maintain a diverse range of links with educational institutions both within and outside of Europe. The Design faculty has changed all its courses over to the BA/MA format. The Design courses follow a particular intercultural philosophy that is implemented in the form of regular exchanges of students and teaching staff and also by joint cooperation projects with international partners.

International Role

The courses in the Design faculty are very diverse: Fashion, Interior Architecture, Industrial Design, Multimedia|VR, Communication Design and Design Studies, and master’s courses in Ceramics and Glass Design, Textile Design, Toy and Learning Aid Design. For this reason, the international links are also structured in a variety of manners. These links range from joint workshops, block seminars and excursions, right through to regular personal contacts with the aim of discussing and reflecting on the quality and orientation of teaching and research.

National Role

In its local region, Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle has a high profile and enjoys significant goodwill, and this has a very positive effect on the university’s active network. The Halle Design Award is organised every two years on an international basis by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in close cooperation with the university and is supported by numerous small- and medium-sized businesses. The ‘Designhaus Halle’ is the university’s start-up initiative, which offers close links with the campus to around 35 graduates, start-up entrepreneurs and young professionals in their first few years outside of the university. Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle has a unique position in Germany. It was founded shortly before the Bauhaus 100 years ago and is now the second-largest art university in Germany and is one of the best ranked institutions of its kind.

Main Focus

Since the university’s foundation in 1915, its educational philosophy has been based primarily on two guiding approaches: close links between the design studio and the workshop, and the common first year of studies taken by all students in the Design faculty with its broad repertoire-building in basic artistic and design skills. BA/MA courses that can be structured by students according to their own individual preferences and diverse interdisciplinary and intercultural links are additional characteristics of courses of study in Design.