Zurich University of the Arts

With around 2,800 students and 650 teaching staff, Zurich University of the Arts is one of the major universities of the arts in Europe. The study and research programme covers the areas of design, film, fine arts, music, dance, theatre, transdisciplinary studies, and the teaching of arts and design. The university also has many venues for exhibitions and performances, where the results of the education provided can be shown in public. Zurich University of the Arts is part of the Zurich Universities of Applied Sciences and Arts (ZFH), and is a state university with its own legal entity.

Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) is a regionally anchored, internationally oriented provider of higher education and research. Our academic programmes, leadership, and administration are fully committed to the highest standards and to the precept of sustainability. We endeavour to play a decisive role in shaping the practical and theoretical discourses within the arts, design, and education. We are thus actively involved in the renewal of the disciplines taught and researched at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). We place our work in the context of cultural, social, and economic responsibility. What we do is characterised by openness, critically minded curiosity, respect, and critical self-reflection. We provide an outstanding experimental field for teaching and research. On a national level, we are committed to ensuring that arts universities are entitled to award doctoral degrees in their own right. We interrelate the disciplines represented at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), and thereby create added value for teaching and research. We are committed to systematically extending cross-disciplinary cooperation with other universities and higher education institutions. Our self-conception rests on our status as an autonomous arts university. We receive public funding, in addition to which we raise private, third-party funding, in order to successfully fulfil our mission and performance contract.

We have dedicated core teaching and research areas. Networked both within and beyond Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), these core areas have a strong outreach. We are committed to the international state of the art and to its further advancement. We offer graduate study leading to Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, as well as a wide range of continuing education and professional development programmes. Our degree programmes qualify students for professional careers in the arts and culture, in thecreative industries, and in other areas of business and society. We present the results of our teaching and research to a wider public in manifold ways, including public events, performances, concerts, exhibitions, and publications. In doing so, we showcase the work of our staff and students, and thus embrace the challenge of public debate. We host a wide range of performances, exhibitions, and other kinds of public presentation. Together with our affiliated Museum of Design and its collections, these different forms and formats play a significant role in the cultural life of the City and Canton of Zurich.

We maintain active alliances with our national and international strategic partners. We maintain a continuous dialogue with our suppliers and with the exponents of the professional fields associated with the disciplines taught at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). Our teaching faculty has excellent professional and interpersonal skills, and actively brings to bear its international experience in teaching and research. Teaching faculty is committed to nurturing and promoting the individual student’s development, and conscious of its social responsibility. Pursuant to our commitment to nurturing talent, we systematically promote our non-professorial, midtier teaching staff and support it in obtaining further qualifications. Our staff are qualified professionals who know the culture and workings of an internationally oriented arts university. They are fully dedicated to supporting teaching and research. We are an attractive employer with regard to our fields of activity, networking, development opportunities, and financial framework.

Our students are talented and committed to performance. We enable our students to build specialist skills in their chosen disciplines and to extend these through actively engaging with other disciplines. Our students assume responsibility for co-determining teaching and learning. Our student body is international.

Our leadership and organisation support us in realising our mission. The leadership skills necessary for realising our mission exist on all levels of our organisation. We are an equal opportunities employer. Our organisational culture wholly observes the imperatives of individual dignity and integrity through endorsing the principles of open communication, social responsibility, and participatory leadership. Adherence to these core principles ensures that all members of Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) are able to contribute to shaping its future development.

Teaching at ZHdK is aligned with the demands facing our graduates in the cultural and creative industries. Our teaching anticipates possible developments in these industries and influences such developments. We equip students with the knowledge and skills needed to actively and sustainably shape their future professional fields. Our approach to teaching is flexible and open-minded, and thereby enables swift responses to the changes and shifts occurring within a highly dynamic environment. Our teaching aspires to nothing less than excellence. Given the crucial importance of teaching, we develop our strategic aims in close association with the principles guiding our teaching practice. Our further education programmes are aimed at national and international specialists. Our programmes are demand-driven. They are oriented toward the current state of knowledge and embrace the highest possible quality standards for teaching and research.

We will improve our organisational framework by further standardising our administrative processes. We will develop a University-wide understanding of collaborative partnership between our organisational units. Our administration will render the agreed services to ensure we fulfil our performance mandate in an effective, efficient, client- and solution-oriented manner. We are an organisation fully committed to sustainability.