General information

The Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna ...
from the Konservatorium Wien to the Konservatorium Wien Privatuniversität, and the MUK since 2015 – a young university with a history

The Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna (MUK) is a city-based art university which creates cultural values for the future through its tireless research in the fields of music, dance and drama.

Today’s MUK dates back to the efforts begun during the 1920s by private stakeholders and the public administration of the City of Vienna to provide access to the highest standards of education in the arts and music to a wide range of people on an artistic as well as an educational level. Since the university’s accreditation in 2005 (still known back then as the Konservatorium Wien Privatuniversität), the City of Vienna – as the sole owner of the GmbH institution – has made it possible for 850 students from all over the world to access artistic education that is contemporary, highly demanding on an international level, yet financially viable and in accordance with the principles of the Bologna Declaration of the European Union.
Together with 280 lecturers, including many who enjoy the highest artistic or academic reputation outside their teaching positions, the young artists are part of a university community of competence and innovative strength, which is being constantly driven forwards through individual promotion of teaching and through intensive research.
The small but efficient management team provides administrative support incorporating the latest technological developments and is also actively involved in the development of educational formats – comprising 400 public events a year among other things.

The close consultation between the university leadership and the lecturers, students and administrative staff, has seen a new structure be developed for the young university. This will, in particular, reposition the Master’s degrees in terms of future artistic and academic requirements. Contemporary artistic work forms the thematic reference point, completing the circle of the founding ideals of the past.

The institution was known as the Konservatorium Wien Privatuniversität until 2 November 2015.