Hunan University

Design education at Hunan University began in 1977, when the School of Design opened as one of the first in China to teach industrial design. Master’s degrees followed in 1993, doctoral training in 2005, first-level doctoral authority in 2011 and a postdoctoral station in 2014.

Two bachelor programmes are offered: Industrial Design, a Bachelor of Engineering, and Product Design, an experimental class in digital cultural innovation awarding a Bachelor of Design; master’s and doctoral tracks complete the ladder. More than 800 full-time students are enrolled, split almost evenly between undergraduates and postgraduates.

It works in Changsha at the foot of Yuelu Mountain, in a university descended from the Yuelu Academy of the Song dynasty and known as the “Millennium Academy”, a national key university under the “211 Project” and the “985 Project”. Facilities include a national art and design experimental centre, a Ministry of Education base for human-AI collaborative design and a Ministry of Culture and Tourism key laboratory for digital cultural creativity.

It belongs to the World Design Organization and Cumulus, hosts the China-Italy Design and Innovation Centre and partners with Huawei, Sany, Mindray and Desay SV; Business Week named it among the world’s 60 best design schools in 2006, and its discipline has held a top-five place in the last two national evaluations.