Estonian Academy of Arts

The Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA), founded in 1914, is the only public university in Estonia offering higher education in architecture, design, fine arts, art culture, cultural heritage and conservation. It is an active study and research institution and the leading national center of innovation in visual culture.

Twelve hundred students currently enrolled at EKA are taught by nearly three hundred professors, associate professors, lecturers and workshop managers from Estonia and abroad. Small groups of carefully selected students enable a more personal, one-on-one approach to instruction and family-like, close-knit atmosphere, and EKA prides itself on the low student-to-professor ratio. Studies take place in a new award-winning building with an innovative and inspiring environment.

EKA offers nine Master’s programmes taught in English: Animation, Contemporary Art, Graphic Design, Interaction Design, Urban Studies, Craft Studies, Design & Technology Futures (joint programme with TalTech), Literature, Visual Culture and Film Studies (joint programme with TLU), and Service Design Strategies and Innovations (joint programme with University of Lapland and Art Academy of Latvia). EKA also offers four international full-time PhD programs: Art and Design, Architecture and Urban Design, Art History and Visual Culture, and Cultural Heritage and Conservation.

While offering a wide selection of specialties, EKA also offers unique, individualized study and personal mentorship by members of the faculty. The departments are strong bodies of competence on their own, while at the same time facilitating synergy and interdisciplinary studies, encouraging innovation and experimentation. EKA welcomes motivated people who are visually and socially sensitive and want to develop their thinking abilities, opportunities, and potential as creative people.