Berlin's government is effectively sabotaging the city's international status as an artistic and academic hub, according to students and teachers at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK), which is pressing ahead with cuts to its English-language arts courses as the city slashes the budgets of its universities.

The Berlin government has decided to cut €106 million ($125 million) from the budgets of its universities, including the world-renowned Humboldt University, the Free University, the Technical University, and the UdK, one of the world's largest specialist arts universities in the world, with around 4,000 students. This comes despite the fact that economic studies have shown that international students bring a net benefit to state coffers and foster economic growth.

The UdK has been forced to cut some €8 million from its yearly budget of around €100 million, meaning that whole courses will have to be dispensed with. Teachers and students are particularly upset at the loss of the Sound Studies and Sonic Arts Masters Program, a three-year course that has been taught in English since 2017, and which attracts students from all over the world. An open letter calling for the decision to be reversed has gathered close to 5,000 signatures, including those of many leading figures in Berlin's cultural scene.

The capital of cutting-edge music

One of those facing redundancy because of the cuts is Japanese sound installation artist Daisuke Ishida, who has been teaching the Sonic Arts course since 2012, and who is particularly devastated because the city has for decades been a hub for experimental and electronic music. New applicants "gravitate towards the city and the study program at the same time," he told DW.

Berlin is not only home to a legendary electronic music scene that goes back decades, but also some of the most important sound art festivals, such as the CTM Festival, which has been running since 1999 and attracts some of the most famous sound artists in the world. Ishida sees his course as "playing a very important role in that ecosystem."

"What's really ironic is that [Berlin modern art galleries] Neue Nationalgalerie, Hamburger Bahnhof, and HKW all have big sound art exhibitions," said Ishida. "The decision runs absolutely counter to all this."

"This is what's attractive about Berlin on a global scale — its arts and culture," said Jan Thoben, who coordinates the Sound Studies and Sonic Arts program. "We don't have industry, but we have the creative industry, and we have the cultural players, and if this continues to be cut away, then it cuts at the heart of Berlin."

In a statement to DW, the UdK said that it had been legally obliged to review all its structures, and that there had been "no alternative but to adapt the organizational form" to the legal framework laid out by the Berlin government. "The current degree programs will be completed in accordance with the law, which means that they will continue to be offered for at least twice the standard period of study, i.e., over a period of around six years," it added.

The economic benefits of students

Berlin has also become a home to several sound technology companies, including the software company Ableton, whose co-founder Robert Henke, a former UdK professor, told the Tagesspiegel newspaper that he thought it "economically unwise to discontinue such degree programs, especially in Berlin."

On a larger scale, there is evidence that international students bring a net economic benefit to Germany, despite the fact that many universities do not charge tuition fees. A study released last year by the German Economic Institute in Cologne (IW) found that the 79,000 international students in Germany in 2022 generated a long-term net benefit of €15.5 billion for public coffers.

The Berlin government did not want to comment on the study or the decision to cut the Sound Studies and Sonic Arts program, saying that the latter was up to the university. The government pointed to a previous statement made by Ina Czyborra, minister for Science, Health, and Care: "The necessary savings and cuts … were not easy for anyone. I am aware that many employees and students found them unreasonable — I take this perception very seriously."

"This makes it all the more important that we now take responsibility together and combine the path of consolidation we have embarked upon with a fair, solidarity-based, and future-oriented further development of the higher education system," the statement added.

Students left hanging

Though the UdK has put out statements in the past condemning the cuts being imposed on the university, some professors believe there has been a shift in the mindset in the administration.

Thoben said that the Berlin government has been pressuring the UdK to make more cuts since 2021, when the law was amended to stop universities from creating more professorships. But up until now, the UdK leadership has always resisted the pressure. That has changed. "Now the decision has been made that they want to be complicit with that regulation," he told DW.

As for the students themselves, many feel they have been left hanging by this sudden decision — legally, the university is obliged to complete the education of the students who have already started the course, but "the university has not been transparent about the process or how this will affect our education," according to Ruben Kotkamp, who moved to Berlin from the Netherlands especially to take the Sonic Arts course.

"Berlin is the contemporary art capital of Europe, especially in transdisciplinary work," he told DW. "And I expected Berlin, of all places, to have a real transdisciplinary approach to art-making, and we're the only transdisciplinary program at the UdK — that makes it even more sour that they're cutting us."

Edited by Rina Goldenberg

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