Arts and Design Education BA

You will acquire various media and techniques in art and design and use them in your teaching. The aim is to orient oneself in the academic field of Arts and Design Education and to be able to use the knowledge of art, design, educational and cultural studies for one’s own activities and to develop one’s skills in art and design. This is always combined with an approach to one’s own studio projects that is intensive, enjoyable, experimentally artistic and creative. You deal with aesthetic and artistic research, with approaches to transformative education; you test your skills in mediation situations and experiment with materials, working methods and hybrid, multimedia processes. And you learn how to incorporate working methods in art and design in teaching contexts in order to create lasting educational impulses, open spaces for reflection, and accompany transformative educational processes.

Study structure

The compulsory portion of the study programme is split into the following module groups: Collective Practice; Artistic and Creative Practice; Education, Art and Teaching; Education, Art, Public Space; Artistic Research Methods; Education, Design Media Practice; Education, Transdisciplinarity, Relationships; Education, Art, Media Science; Education, Research, Transfer; Bachelor’s Thesis.
The elective portion offers a programme that alternates between the Arts and Design Education and Cocreate module groups. Each spring semester, the specialisation module groups give students a chance to focus on their own projects.
In the Collective Practice format, students from all three bachelor’s years work on joint solutions to an overarching issue and in doing so build up team spirit and social and teaching skills in addition to artistic and creative skills. In the compulsory modules for the individual programme years, you develop your own independent artistic position in various media and contexts. You learn to contextualise your own work, reflect on it and integrate it into learning situations, and thus tap into lasting educational inspiration, and spaces for reflection and contextualisation.
The comprehensive range of choices gives you the opportunity to delve into your own specialisation in art, design and an experimental and artistic education for a specific target group.
The elective area is complemented by the HGK Basel’s CoCreate programme, which is open to students from all semesters, as well as the partner programme of the FHNW’s trinational IBM programme.

The study programme is aimed at people who have completed a university-track or vocational secondary education (Gymnasium, Berufsmatur or Fachmatur) and want to introduce art and design working methods into teaching processes and society, and to develop themselves in artistic, creative, pedagogical and media-oriented processes and ways of acting and thinking.

Goals and benefits

The bachelor degree programme aims to develop a comprehensive and interdisciplinary field of expertise. Accordingly, the practical and theoretical knowledge of art, culture, design, society and communication is bundled together in a profile for artistic teaching work.

The training of artistic and design working methods, craft-technical and media skills, knowledge of art and design theory, as well as the development of creative processes and strategies enable you to understand art and design and their media forms as a kind of material with which you will initiate and accompany transformative educational processes in your professional practice.

Career prospects

The completion of the degree programme qualifies students to be admitted to the master in Arts and Design Education, to obtain a teaching diploma for baccalaureate schools, and to directly pursue a career in the field of socioculture, off-spaces, open youth work or institutional education in museums.

With its central Campus.Workshops, the FHNW HGK Basel offers ideal conditions for combining a curiosity about craftsmanship, the learning of techniques, the use of various media and materials, and digital expertise. Students enrolled on the BA in Teaching in Art and Design benefit from round-the-clock access to a workspace. As a communal space, the studio is managed by the students themselves – supported by mentors and the degree programme management. Rounding out the amenities available at the IADE are video editing facilities as well as a media loan facility, a painting facility, extensive use of the sculpture workshop and rooms for various uses.

The amenities are available to students 365 days a year.

Educational requirements
Admission to the aptitude assessment for the bachelor’s degree in Arts and Design Education requires one of the following qualifications:

• a certified vocational baccalaureate
• a certified specialized baccalaureate
• a certified upper secondary school (level II) baccalaureate
• proof of an equivalent educational degree at an upper secondary school (level II) obtained otherwise (Swiss education system)
  
• an EDK-approved primary school teaching diploma

Language of tuition
The language of tuition is German (B2 or equivalent). Proof of language proficiency is required at the start of the degree programme.

Workplace experience or preparatory course in design
One year of practical workplace experience or completion of a preparatory course are not mandatory, but recommended.

approved professional fields (PDF in German)
Is a list of approved vocational trainings and professional fields, respectively.

Catching up on the vocational baccalaureate
Applicants who have not completed at least three years of upper secondary schooling (level II) are not legally entitled to admission to a Bachelor's degree programme. Information concerning full-time or part-time on-the-job training courses focusing on a vocational, design-based or specialized baccalaureate is provided by the local vocational colleges.

To apply for a place at the HGK Basel, the required documents must be submitted by deadline 15.02.2025.
Please send the specific enquiries to email address.

Info aptitude assessment 2025 (german)

Dates aptitude assessment 2025

• 01.11.2024
  Publication of the detailed information on the aptitude assessment
  
• 15.02.2025
  Registration deadline and deadline for submitting the required documents for the aptitude assessment.
• 15.09.2025
  Fall Semester begin 2025/26

Requirements regarding the portfolio presentation on admission day:
Portfolio: At least 12 different projects (mix of paintings, drawings, photos, videos, digital works, crafts, if feasible documentations of art educational projects). Put your workbook or portfolio together with an approach to studying Arts and Design Education. We are interested in a wide range of materials, techniques, ideas, projects, and educational works.
Label your workbook or portfolio on the outside in clearly visible and legible writing, indicating name, first name, and address.
When presenting your portfolio (duration ca. 10 minutes), make sure you show a broad selection of your work and only go into more detail of a few, carefully selected works.

Study Regulations, Arts and Design Education (BA) PDF in German

Here you will find answers to FAQs about preparing and registering for a Bachelor’s (BA) or a Master’s (MA) degree programme at the HGK Basel FHNW.

FAQ online registration

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International students can find further information on the website of the International Office of the HGK Basel.

Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW
Institute Arts and Design Education (IADE)
Freilager-Platz 1
Postfach

CH-4002 Basel

Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW
Institute Arts and Design Education (IADE)

Oslo-Strasse 3
4142 Basel/Münchenstein

Ateliergebäude: A 1.18

T +41 61 228 40 88
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