Thirteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

Cross-disciplinary education is increasing in popularity. According to the World Economic Forum report “The Future of Jobs”, the top skills in the future will be complex problem solving, critical thinking, and creativity. (World Economic Forum, 2016). Universities expect graduates to be leaders and innovators in the workplace and in society at large (Gross, 2009). What kind of Design Education is needed to meet the future demands? Are Design Schools currently offering the above-mentioned skills? Attempting to answer this question requires to examine the design education at the present time and identify what are the current trends. This presentation illustrates the context of cross-disciplinary design education, as presented through the websites of the world’s top design schools (by QS World University Rankings). The main purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between the cross-disciplinary design education and the current design education trends. This work contributes an understanding on the world’s top design schools’ pedagogy as communicated through publicly accessible online prospectuses.