On October 21st, 2017 (Sat), the Graduate School fo Design of Kyushu University, in collaboration with the Center for Designed Futures, held the International Symposium on the “Quality Assurance of Design Education”.

This symposium was organized to reexamine the concepts and methodology of current design education centering on Kyushu University and to explore their future in order to respond to the societal need for design and the rapidly and qualitatively changing concept of design.

In the first session, a keynote speech on the theme of “Perspectives on the Quality of Design Education” was delivered by Mr. Tani, the director of the Graduate School of Design, Mr. Nagasawa, the President of Musashino Art University, and Professor Lee Kun-pyo of KAIST. They talked about their visions of design education in the future and what we look for in designers.

In the subsequent second session, professors from the National University of Singapore and Kyoto Seika University gave a talk on the “Frame of Design Education” and presented the initiatives undertaken in their respective universities. In the third session in the afternoon, faculty members from a total of seven universities including Dalian University of Technology shared their future-thinking approaches and practices in education and exchanged opinions with participants.

In the fourth session, the four participating university professors had a lively discussion concerning the things that are important in design education and the intended achievements of design education in the future. It was a good oportunity to bring up various issues surrounding the present design education in Asian countries.