[7] At Bard College Berlin students may enroll in a BA degree, or in a one-semester or one-year program suitable to their profile, background, and individual aims of study.

The college supports internship opportunities and practical training, and has many established connections with the intellectual and cultural life of Berlin.

The college is, according to Martha Nussbaum, one of the educational institutions in Europe that makes the liberal arts idea into reality.

The program seeks to unlock creativity, lift the pressures associated with academic work, and develop the skills needed for reading, understanding, and analysing visual, literary, and philosophical material.

The program also provides strategies for the later stages of the writing process, including revising, editing, and consulting with peers and instructors.

During the Academy Year, students take the first two core courses of the BA degree (Greek Civilization and Medieval Literature and Culture) and their choice of elective seminars.

During this course of study, students pursue an individual project under the supervision of an ECLA of Bard faculty member with relevant expertise.

[12] In addition to faculty members and postdoctoral fellows, Bard College Berlin students are taught by a series of guest teachers, who deliver lectures and participate in seminars throughout the academic year.

As of January 20, 2017 Bard College Berlin is institutionally accredited at national level in Germany by the Wissenschaftsrat.

The college first received state recognition from the Berlin Senate Department for Education, Youth and Science (Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Jugend und Wissenschaft).

Most buildings were designed in 1966 by Eckart Schmidt and built starting 1972,[15] and formerly belonged to the embassies of several countries in GDR, among others Egypt, Cuba[16] and Nigeria.