Arts and Design Education, Teaching Diploma for Secondary Schools, Basel Academy of Art and Design

Having completed your MA course, you have the ability to sensitise and motivate learners and the competence to perceive, reflect and act with regard to visual culture as well as in respect to your students and teaching. Based on your own creative work and ongoing engagement with professional theory and practice in the given social context, you are in a position to provide innovative teaching and learning opportunities. You provide guidance in the processes of visual perception, aesthetic analysis and judgement and thus enhance the learners’ visual literacy.

The master’s study programme sharpens students’ ability to sensitise learners to aesthetic issues and motivate them to engage in artistic and creative processes. You have solid perceptual, action and reflection skills grounded in current research discourses on aesthetic cultures as well as learning situations and lesson planning. On the basis of your own artistic and creative work and a critical and reflective examination of professional theory and practice, you will be able to structure well-founded and creative lessons. You initiate and promote processes of aesthetic perception and analysis, and in doing so improve your ability to talk about artistic and creative matters.

As a graduate of the master’s programme, you will prove yourself as a teacher in various schools and as educators in art and cultural institutions outside of the school system. The study programme also qualifies you for advanced research-oriented work at an art or other university or educational institution.

The study programme offers a transdisciplinary and multifaceted context, which closely links technical knowledge creation with aesthetic and practical research. A central component of the programme takes the form of individual artistic and design-related projects as well as aesthetic-research projects, which are supported by colloquia and mentorships. At the same time, you will expand your knowledge of art, culture and design teaching in seminars. You will also deepen your art pedagogical skills in a collaborative and transdisciplinary way in cross-regional network modules as well as practical and research-oriented modules. The course components of the teaching diploma prepare you to develop artistic and design-related content in an educational science-based and didactically competent manner and to successfully teach it in school placements.The comprehensive MA in Teaching in Art and Design prepares you optimally for employment in schools, museums, sociocultural settings and research – with a deep understanding of the connection between the theoretical and practical fields of the subject area.

The degree program follows the areas of competence: “Studio, Artistic Research and Arts and designEducation,” “Discourse, Art and Cultural Studies,” “Artistic Methods and Aesthetic Research,” “Art Education: Contexts, Practices,” “Art Education Didactics,” “Educational Research,” and “Practical Professional Studies.”

In the first three semesters, you build your knowledge of art, cultural and education studies, expand your artistic, design and teaching skills, and learn to treat current aesthetic and research approaches and discourses in a professional manner. The main focus of the 4th semester is on developing and completing your master’s thesis at the HGK Basel.

Master's thesis
You define the subject area and methods of your thesis as an independent, research-oriented project. In principle, the thesis project consists of both artistic and creative, discursive and context-driven as well as teaching-oriented parts that can be combined with one another in different ways. The thesis provides you with a space for dealing with your aesthetic actions and thoughts through research, and for finding your own position in the context of professional discourses, artistic design and education

The master’s study programme is intended for students who are enthusiastic about teaching in the field of art, design and aesthetic research, and who want to link discursive, artistic and pedagogical practices. A successfully completed bachelor’s degree in the area of Arts Education is the prerequisite for being accepted to the study programme. The master’s degree qualifies you to teach at the upper secondary level, in art and cultural institutions as well as to conduct research-oriented advanced qualification work in the field of art, design and education.

With its studios, labs and centrally located on Campus.Workshops, the HGK Basel provides ideal conditions for combining a curiosity for craftsmanship, the acquisition of new techniques and digital know-how. What’s more, all students have their own work station in the spacious studios, which are open 24/7.

In the institute’s own Learning Lab Arts and Design, creative processes and the design of experiential and cognitive spaces are explored, documented and researched in digital and analogue formats in workshops and seminars. Students have access to the facilities 365 days a year.

Learning Lab Arts & Design

The platform offers in-depth information on the “Terrain” event series as well as on individual projects and workshop formats developed – Learning Lab Arts & Design

Academical qualifications
Admission to the aptitude assessment normally requires one of the following qualifications:

• A Bachelor’s degree in Arts and Design Education.
• Any other Bachelor’s degree aimed at teaching at upper secondary school level (baccalaureate) or at an occupation in the field of Arts and Design Education.

Professional Suitability 
For admission to the Master’s program Arts and Design Education / Teaching Diploma for Baccalaureate Schools Fine Arts, successful completion of the professional aptitude assessment is a prerequisite. To register for the aptitude assessment, which is part of the entrance examination, a current extract from the criminal record must be submitted together with the application documents.

Language of tuition
The language of tuition is German (C2 level or equivalent).

If you have any questions about whether your previous studies will be recognized, please send your CV and a copy of your BA degree certificate before you start your online application and before February 10, 2026 to info.iade.hgk@fhnw.ch

To apply for a place at the HGK Basel, the required documents must be submitted by deadline 15.03.2026.

Please send specific degree programme to email address.

Info aptitude assessment 2026

• 01.11.2025
  Publication of the detailed information on the aptitude assessment
• 15.03.2026
  Registration deadline and upload deadline for all required documents via the application portal.
• The placement for «Berufseignungsabklärung PH FHNW» is needed.
  More information
• 14.09.2026
  Fall Semester begin 2026/27

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

Guideline for the Recognition of Academic Achievements (PDF in German)

Guideline for Vocational Aptitude Assessment (PDF in German)

A week-long networking event is held each semester in cooperation with the arts education programmes of the ZHdK, HSLU and HKB (i.e. Zurich University of the Arts, Lucerne University of Applied Arts and Sciences, and Bern University of the Arts). This block week focuses on students interacting with others beyond the walls of their own university, as well as the examination of current international practice, research and theory in the field of art education. Collaborations with museums, exhibition halls, schools and educational places outside of schools round off the range of the study programme. During these collaborations, you gather hands-on experience, implement your own educational projects, and test and reinforce your educational skills.

Here, school principals, subject departments, teachers, and students will find documents related to Visual Arts internships at secondary schools within the framework of the professional practical studies starting in the autumn semester 2026.

School Internship Guide (PDF)