Abstract:

Considering both design and innovation as an important part of any process that involves creation and creativity is something that has become a must in big companies and as a part of the politics in so many countries. Nevertheless, in education we have a big lack in which creation has been linked more with learning tools and improving creativity than focus students on creating the process itself, especially in higher education and vocational training.

This investigation analyzes different education experiences in whom non design schools include design thinking or design and innovation subjects on their curriculum in order to focus their programs on a more interdisciplinary education.

In this study, according to the QS World University Rankings 2022, we analyze the 10 European universities which had better overall Score at the ranking on their management and business administration studies. We consider different kinds of design subjects in their curriculums, different methodologies, or different cultural and social environments contexts. The analysis focuses on the way design is taught and how it matters, especially on subjects that involve creativity.

The main objective of the investigation is the creation of a methodology that allows us to analyze the importance of design and innovation in the schools’ curriculums and how it impacts on their students and their final results. In order to achieve this objective, a selection of different universities and schools in Europe has been done for the purpose of comparing them analyzing the presence of design and innovation in their curriculum. We study how the curriculum is itself, if it depends on a legal background, if the institution cares about design, if they use it on its marketing strategy to promote the educational program, if students acquire different skills related to the design thinking process and finally, if it affects to the academic results and the way students develop an interdisciplinary way of thinking.

We work on a mixed methodology, both quantitative and qualitative in order to compare and analyze the differences and characteristics that these schools have in common so we can evaluate how important is design for them and what is the impact of having this kind of subjects inside their curricula.

The outcomes of this study bring us a new methodology that allow us to analyze different university curriculums in order to highlight the importance of design and innovation on an interdisciplinary education background and how its presence plays an important role on the students' results and careers.

In conclusion, this article establishes an analysis in which different university programs are compared, considering the importance of design and innovation process they include or not in their curriculum. This analysis creates a methodology that we could follow on future studies in different areas of knowledge or different educational programs in order to understand how design processes and interdisciplinary studies are relevant on each curriculum.

Keywords:

Design for innovation, design thinking, design education, interdisciplinary curriculum, higher education.