With over 950 students, the Department of Design is Switzerland’s largest university for the arts and the only one with its own museum, creating unique synergies. hgkz offers a comprehensive range of study opportunities in the fields of design, art, media and communications. Teaching and research are marked by an interdiscplinary curriculum meeting the highest practical and theoretical standards.

Degree courses are available in Fine Arts, Film, Photography, New Media, Art and Design Theory, Industrial Design, Interaction Design and Game Design, Scenographical Design, Style & Design, Visual Communication, Scientific Visualization, and Teaching Professions in Art and Design. Postgraduate programmes are also available in Design Culture, Cultural & Gender Studies, Mobile Application Design, Scenography, along with a wide selection of continuing education courses open to the public.

hgkz maintains partnerships with over 60 art schools in Europe and with a further 14 institutions in the Americas, Asia and Australia.

A broad range of additional services is available to students and the public:
The Museum of Design Zurich and Museum Bellerive hold rotating exhibits on design, ranging from the basics of the creative process to presentation of broader topics such as design, communication, photography, architecture, art and media. The museum also has a design collection, graphic collection, poster collection and applied arts collection, each one containing a wealth of unique objects and documents to serve the needs of students and researchers.

hgkz’s Public Library contains some 80 000 books and over 180 current journals,
extensive databases and a videotheque. The Documentation Centre is available for research in the extensive hgkz archives.

In the near future, hgkz will merge with the Zurich School of Music, Drama and Dance (hmtz) to form the Zurich School of the Arts. Both schools are part of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Zurich.