Nationwide study on abuse of power: HfMDK takes part

Mu­sic uni­ver­si­ties are pla­ces of ar­tis­tic ex­cel­lence and in­ten­si­ve col­la­bo­ra­ti­on. At the same time, ex­pe­ri­ence re­ports and in­iti­al stu­dies show that ab­u­se of power, discri­mi­na­ti­on and se­xua­li­zed vio­lence can also oc­cur in the uni­ver­si­ty con­text. Some stu­dies in­di­ca­te that mu­sic uni­ver­si­ties have par­ti­cu­lar risk fac­tors due to their spe­ci­fic tea­ching and working me­thods.

From May 2026, the HfMDK Frank­furt will be par­ti­ci­pa­ting in an in­de­pen­dent cross-uni­ver­si­ty stu­dy on the ma­ni­fes­ta­ti­ons and pre­ven­ti­on of ab­u­se of power at Ger­man mu­sic uni­ver­si­ties. The stu­dy was com­mis­sio­ned by the Rec­tor­s' Con­fe­rence of Uni­ver­si­ties of Mu­sic (RKM), with fi­nan­ci­al sup­port from the Fe­deral Mi­nis­try of Re­se­arch, Tech­no­lo­gy and Space.

Frame­work of the stu­dy

The In­sti­tu­te for Prac­ti­cal Re­se­arch and Pro­ject Con­sul­ting (IPP) in Mu­nich is re­spon­si­ble for con­duc­ting the stu­dy. The stu­dy is in­de­pen­dent and com­ple­te­ly an­ony­mous.

The stu­dy com­pri­ses

• a broad-ba­sed on­line sur­vey in May 2026 and
• four in-depth qua­li­ta­ti­ve case stu­dies at selec­ted uni­ver­si­ties in 2026.
• Stu­dents and tea­chers at 22 Ger­man uni­ver­si­ties of mu­sic will be sur­vey­ed.

Par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on in the on­line sur­vey

The on­line sur­vey will take place from May 4 to 31, 2026. It can be com­ple­ted in Ger­man or Eng­lish.

HfMDK stu­dents and tea­chers will re­cei­ve a link with a per­so­nal ac­cess code in their HfMDK e-mail in­box. Par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on is vol­un­ta­ry and com­ple­te­ly an­ony­mous. Neit­her the in­sti­tu­te con­duc­ting the sur­vey nor the uni­ver­si­ty can draw con­clu­si­ons about in­di­vi­du­al per­sons.

The broa­dest pos­si­ble par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on is cru­ci­al in or­der to ob­tain me­a­ning­ful re­sults.

Aims of the stu­dy

The aim of the stu­dy is to gain the first com­pre­hen­si­ve and re­li­able fin­dings on the extent and ma­ni­fes­ta­ti­ons of ab­u­se of power at Ger­man con­ser­va­toires. It also aims to ex­ami­ne the struc­tu­ral cha­rac­te­ris­tics of con­ser­va­toires and the ef­fec­tiveness of exis­ting pre­ven­ta­ti­ve and sanc­tio­n­ing mea­su­res.

In de­tail, the aim is to

• gain qua­li­ta­ti­ve in­sights dif­fe­ren­tia­ted ac­cord­ing to sub­ject are­as and uni­ver­si­ty-spe­ci­fic cha­rac­te­ris­tics
• ex­ami­ne the struc­tu­ral cha­rac­te­ris­tics of tea­ching for­mats - for examp­le in in­di­vi­du­al ar­tis­tic les­sons or small group les­sons - with re­gard to pos­si­ble risks and pro­tec­tive fac­tors
• re­view the ef­fec­tiveness of exis­ting pre­ven­ti­on and sanc­tion mea­su­res, also in the con­text of the re­com­men­da­ti­ons for ac­tion of the Rec­tor­s' Con­fe­rence of Ger­man Uni­ver­si­ties of Mu­sic (RKM) from 2024

By par­ti­ci­pa­ting in the stu­dy, the HfMDK Frank­furt is un­der­li­ning its com­mit­ment to an open dis­cus­sion of power re­la­ti­ons and to a re­spec­t­ful, non-discri­mi­nato­ry and safe stu­dy and work en­vi­ron­ment.

The re­sults of the stu­dy are ex­pec­ted to be pu­blished in spring 2027.