The reform situation of Chinese Design Education in the 21st Century

Abstract

Background The recent scientific and technological revolution and industrial changes have brought new challenges to design education, and the problems caused by the traditional education model have become the main motivations for design education reform. How design education responds to these challenges and issues and how it cultivates new design talents suitable for the times has become a much discussed topic today. Like South Korea, China is also undergoing a design education revolution. Therefore, research on Chinese design education is valuable for the development of South Korean design education. The purpose of this article is to study the development and reform of design education in China, identify characteristics of Chinese design education reform, and understand the future development trend of Chinese design. Methods The research method of this study consists of three parts. First, we collected and analyzed the existing literature materials, and summarized the basic situation and development history of Chinese design education. Second, through the investigation of design teachers and graduate students, we found the existing problems. Third, we selected four representative design schools in China (two comprehensive universities and two art academies), by searching their websites, emailing professors, and collecting information such as brochures, documentation, and articles, and comparing and analyzing their reform models. Results The final results of this research demonstrate the advantages of the new design education model. We showed that there are four commonalities in Chinese design education reform: promoting a 'problem-oriented' curriculum, adopting a segmented teaching structure, implementing interdisciplinary teaching, and emphasizing a project-based teaching mode combining 'IndustryUniversity-Research Institution'. The research findings also revealed the advantages of designing education reform in universities of different attributes. The results indicate that the future goal of China's design education reform is to transform universities into social service institutions that can contribute to regional economic development and innovation. Conclusions This research enables us to deeply understand the development history and current situation of design education in China, as well as the future development trend. Moreover, this research recognizes the importance that China attaches to design education for the development of new creativity and innovation economy. It is hoped that this study can help to better understand China, the world's second-largest economy, while providing references for the development of design education in South Korea. © 2020, Korean Society of Design Science.