Diversity and equality

The HfMT Hamburg is a highly international university of the arts. Students, teachers and staff come from over 60 countries and speak many different languages. They experience their everyday life in Hamburg and at the university differently, because diversity extends beyond cultural, socio-economic and religious backgrounds and also encompasses individual identities and lifestyles. They classify themselves as women or men according to the traditional gender image or act beyond binary categories. They live in heterosexual or same-sex relationships or have different skin colors and body characteristics. Some have to live with invisible chronic illnesses or physical or psychological limitations. Our aim is to enable all students, teachers and staff at the HfMT to participate in university life without discrimination.

Do you need support? We are here to help. It is important to the University of Music and Drama that staff, students and guests treat each other fairly and respectfully. The conditions of artistic and academic training with its large proportion of individual and small group lessons, personal dependence on the teacher, high pressure to perform and the commitment of the whole person require a particularly sensitive approach to each other. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need help.

The Diversity Steering Group was founded in 2018 to make diversity at the HfMT visible, to raise awareness of its influence on university life and with the aim of developing a diversity management concept. A working group with interested parties from all status groups at HfMT, which includes professors from the various deaneries, members of the extended Executive Board, the Equal Opportunities Officer, the Head of Quality Management, employees of the Career Center and the International Office, the university's legal advisor, students and other administrative staff and non-professorial academic staff. This steering group, appointed by the University Senate, set itself the following motto:

People at the HfMT live diversity in respectful coexistence.

The steering group is currently headed by Dr. Bilinc Ercan-Catanzaro and Maike Arnemann.

Pursuant to Section 3 (4) of the Hamburg Higher Education Act (HmbHG), higher education institutions shall ensure that their members can study or work in a professional or academic capacity without discrimination. Within the scope of their possibilities, they work towards the elimination of existing discrimination. The universities develop concepts for dealing constructively with diversity (diversity management). The HfMT has developed its own participation procedure for this purpose.

The "Diversity at German universities" initiative aims to make diversity more visible and reduce discrimination. With funding from the Federal Ministryof Education and Research(BMBF), the German Rectors' Conference (HRK) supports universities nationwide in the further development of holistic diversity concepts. The project application submitted by the Hamburg University of Music and Drama was selected for funding for our institutional diversity projects.

Immerse yourself. Concentrate. Deepen. Under the motto Diversity can Inspire, the HfMT is organizing the Diversity Study Weeks in the winter semester 2023/24. Together we celebrate diversity, because it is not just a buzzword, but the heart of our interaction and creative development at an artistic and academic university.