University in Germany
Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
University profile
The Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln (KHM, Academy of Media Arts Cologne) is a state art school in the centre of Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is a public-law corporation and an institution of the Land NRW under the Kunsthochschulgesetz, and the responsible authority is the state Ministry for Culture and Science, with which a four-year Hochschulvertrag is agreed. It opened on 15 October 1990 and offers a single degree programme, Mediale Künste, which it describes as comparable internationally to a Master of Fine Arts.
Teaching is project-based and interdisciplinary, without master classes, and students combine artistic focuses freely, among them animation and 3D animation, cinematography, experimental film, computing and net art, sound art, artistic photography, live direction and TV formats, art and media studies including Queer Studies, multispecies storytelling, video art, performance and public art, literary writing and screenwriting, and directing for fiction and documentary film. Teaching areas are grouped into four subject groups: exMedia, Film und Fernsehen, Kunst, and Kunst- und Medienwissenschaften.
The programme is offered as a nine-semester Diplom 1 and a four-semester Diplom 2, and a doctoral programme (Dr. phil.) has been available since 2004. Around 400 students are enrolled each year, at least 40 per cent of them from abroad, and about 70 new applicants are admitted each winter semester. Teaching is mainly in German and occasionally in English.
Much of the study takes place in studios, laboratories and workshops, including an animation studio, film and TV studios, sound studios, editing and grading suites, a 3D lab, an exMedia Lab, a photo lab, an electronics lab, camera technology, a multispecies studio and a central equipment loan. The library and media library are housed in the Overstolzenhaus at Rheingasse 8.
Student self-government is through the AStA and the Studierendenparlament (StuPa). The annual Rundgang takes place in July and a digital Infotag in December. The KHM also has a Deutschlandstipendium programme, an Erasmus+ exchange programme and partner institutions such as the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá and Emerson College Boston.
The KHM charges no tuition fee for the Mediale Künste Diplom. Each semester students pay a Semesterbeitrag of about 375 euro covering the social contribution to the student services, the AStA fee, the nationwide Deutschland-Semesterticket and equipment insurance. For enrolment in winter semester 2026/27 the transfer amount is 389.87 euro. This is a contribution, not tuition.
The Deutschlandstipendium gives 300 euro per month for at least two semesters (one year, renewable by reapplication), funded half by private donors and half by the federal research ministry. It is awarded for excellent artistic, academic or school achievement, particular potential, social engagement and personal or family circumstances, to first-year or enrolled non-suspended students; the maximum period follows the standard period of study. A selection committee ranks applicants for the Rektorat. For the 2026/27 round the deadline was 23 August 2026, with around seven scholarships expected, one tied to technically oriented work and one to artistic photography. Details: khm.de/deutschlandstipendium.
DAAD scholarship holders can be admitted as guest students with a professor's supervision commitment. Erasmus+ supports exchange of students and staff, and study-abroad places are advertised each November/December with an application deadline at the end of January. See khm.de/internationales.
Deutschlandstipendium at the Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln →
Browse the scholarships listed for Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln and check each award’s eligibility.
View scholarships for Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln →Applicants need the Abitur or an equivalent foreign qualification. Applicants without it can be admitted if the commission finds them outstandingly suited on the basis of their submitted work. Admission is to the winter semester only. The decisive criterion is artistic aptitude, judged from work samples (films, photographs, computer graphics or animation, drawings, texts, compositions, net-based concepts) and a thematic work interpreting an annually changing topic artistically and in writing. The Abitur grade average plays no decisive role. Applicants may apply in the year they take the Abitur if the half-year report is supplied and the Abitur certificate follows at enrolment.
Applicants need the general or subject-specific Hochschulreife plus a completed degree in a relevant field (for example art, literature, theatre, film and television, communication design, cultural studies, computer science) or at least two years of demonstrable artistic-design professional practice. A project sketch (usually two to three pages) accompanies the work samples. Successful applicants enter the main study phase directly.
Applications are made directly to the KHM with a form, work samples, certified copies (with certified German or English translations for foreign certificates), CV, motivation letter, proof of any internships and, for non-German speakers, a German certificate. Only one study variant and one focus can be chosen. The application period runs each year from the end of October to January/February; the Diploma 2 page gives mid-January. There is no nationality quota and no portfolio consultation with lecturers.
Non-German-speaking applicants must show German at level B2 (CEFR) at the latest at enrolment; at application the level shown must be at least A2. The certificate can come from any language school whose exam follows the CEFR. Teaching is mainly in German and occasionally in English. The KHM offers online German tutorials (A1-B1 and B1-C1) but not courses leading to an exam.
Admission requires a research approach related to artistic and media practice and a written supervision commitment from a doctoral-entitled KHM teacher; no supervisor recommendations are given. The dissertation is normally written in German, and no doctoral scholarships can be awarded by the KHM. The Promotionsordnung and a Merkblatt Promotion set out the details.
Admission requirements are identical for German and foreign applicants apart from German proficiency. Guest study is open only to programme students from partner institutions (for example via Erasmus+) and individual scholarship holders such as DAAD fellows, who need a written supervision commitment from a KHM professor; self-applications as a guest are not possible. Guest study for refugee students is available for up to two semesters.
The KHM has no separate campuses; it is spread over six building complexes in Cologne's old town (Altstadt).
Facilities include an animation studio, film and TV studios, sound studios, editing, compositing and colour-grading rooms, a 3D lab, CG lab, exMedia Lab, photo lab and the Case photography project room, an electronics lab, camera labs, a workshop, a computer seminar room, an Aula and a central equipment loan. Media systems technology plans and operates the professional TV, film and sound installations.
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