Studying at the KHM

The Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM) offers the demanding, project-based “Media and Fine Art” course, which gives each student the chance to choose between and individually combine various artistic emphases. The particularly experimental climate at the KHM facilitates independent artist work.

The “Media and Fine Art” diploma can be attained via a 9-semester (undergraduate) or 4-semester (postgraduate) course. The cornerstone of the “Media and Fine Art” course is the individual development of artistic projects. 

• Courses begin exclusively in the winter semester
• The application period starts in October and ends the following January/February
• Semester fees for German and international students are currently 300 Euro per semester (social security contributions, public transport semester ticket etc.) 
  
  

The KHM accepts 70 to 80 new enrolments per winter semester, with an average of around 370 students in total, of which approximately one third are international students.

The Academy of Media Arts Cologne diploma is comparable internationally to a MFA (Master of Fine Art).

The Kunsthochschulgesetz (Art Colleges Act) provides the legal foundation for the KHM as well as six other art and music colleges in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The KHM’s doctoral programme offers the possibility to write a philosophical dissertation leading to a university-comparable, academically founded Doctor of Philosophy. A link to artistic praxis is prerequisite to admission. However, the assessment of the dissertation, in all of its elements, remains an academic one. The number of doctoral candidates admitted is between 15 and 20 per year.

The interdisciplinary approach to teaching and research, the on-going collaboration with other colleges, both domestically and internationally, with cultural institutions, festivals, exhibition organisers as well as the film and media industries paves the way for networks and activities in the areas in which students, doctoral candidates and fellows will work after their degree course: They work successfully, for example, both individually as well as in collectives, as artists, programmers, film directors, camera men and women, scriptwriters, designers, producers or in other self-employed roles. And a substantial number of them now pass on their competence in higher-education teaching roles.