Bern Academy of the Arts, Bern University of Applied Sciences

The Bern Academy of the Arts (HKB) was founded in 2003 as the first all-encompassing university of the arts in Switzerland. It delivers teaching, research, further education and services in Music, Opera, Theatre, Literary Writing, Art, Design and Conservation-Restoration. The Y Institute (Institute for Transdisciplinarity) organises and moderates exchange between the disciplines. About 1000 students enrolled on Bachelor or Master programmes, 170 in further education programmes and 500 teaching and research staff study and work at the academy. The HKB cooperates with numerous universities within Switzerland and abroad, and is represented in national and international organisations and associations. The courses of study on offer comprise eleven Bachelor’s and sixteen Master’s Degrees and additional postgraduate programmes (Certificate, Diploma and Master’s of Advanced Studies). Research at the HKB is characterised by the link between academic and artistic approaches. The HKB carries out research within four transdisciplinary areas of Communication Design, Interpretation Research, Intermediality, and Materiality in Art and Culture. The HKB is one of eight departments of the Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH). It has an interdisciplinary PhD programme (Doctoral Programme Studies in the Arts SINTA, part of the graduate schools of the Arts and Humanities GSAH), which is conducted in cooperation with the University of Berne.