Comparative study of industrial design undergraduate education in China and USA

Abstract

Industrial design (ID) undergraduate education in China is seen as a new rapidly growing discipline over the past 40 years. China's ID education is not well known in the West due to several barriers: language, the Great Firewall of China which blocks out most of the Western websites and a 12-h time difference. All Chinese ID curriculum and program information are available in Mandarin. The Ministry of Education administers all Chinese design education as well as ID scholarships and faculty exchange grants and its website and documents require translation. The Great Firewall of China blocks 90% of Western websites including Google making it difficult for Western Scholars to access accurate information about the size and shape of the Chinese ID education landscape. China has a historical relationship between the ID schools in China and the United States. Chinese students are studying or alumni of every American ID program. China and USA share similar program types, dual-track admissions for art and design streams, and academic calendars. In this paper, a model was developed to clarify the features of ID undergraduate education in China and USA, and a survey of eight ID schools was processed. Four aspects were comparatively discussed: (1) types of ID education, (2) ranking, evaluation, and certification of ID schools and programs, (3) curriculum, credits, course features, and yearly schedules of schools, (4) influences coming from the culture and globalization process. Based on the analysis, the similarities and differences in ID undergraduate education between the two countries are discussed. Results show the dual-track modes in China and USA are different. It is mainly reflected in the management and enrollment, curriculum organization, and cultural environment. Implications for the localization, openness, and globalization to ID education are finally discussed together with several directions for future development. The findings are valuable to USA and Chinese ID departments and faculty, researchers, staff and visiting scholars. It is also useful for university administrative units such as registrars, admissions, international offices and exchanges to understand each other.

Application of Functional Nanomaterials in Aesthetic Art and Industrial Design Concept

“…Finally, they discussed the enlightenment of localization, openness, and globalization to ID education, as well as several directions of future development. However, their practical significance is not high [5]. Adamczak and Graba took engineering research in the field of industrial design as an example to demonstrate the application of 3D printing in the design process.…”

Insights from bauhaus innovation for education and workplaces in a post-pandemic world

“…Bauhaus influence also spread as teachers and graduates opened design and architecture practices and taught in prestigious universities around the world, shaping the development of design education (Huang et al, 2020). Bauhaus members emigrated to countries including the USA, Russia, Switzerland, Israel and Australia.…”

A comparative analysis of educational administration doctoral programs in the international context: Examples from Türkiye and Canada

“…Several attempts have been made to identify and solve different problems in general education to enhance the quality. Although most of the studies focused on the comparative analysis of different undergraduate-level degree programs among world universities in terms of their curricula, program structures and admission requirements (Baki & Bektaş-Baki, 2016), academic course diversity (Kılıçer & Şamlı, 2021), curricula and academic courses (Açıkdilli, 2019;Ottoni, Oliveira, Bandoni & Graça, 2021;Yao, Yan & Hu, 2022), program objectives, teaching and learning objectives/philosophies, academic courses, and admission requirements (Küçükoğlu & Kızıltaş, 2012;Lambert, Lambert & Petrini, 2004), program structures, academic courses and degree completion requirements (Ergun & Ersoy, 2016), program structure, curricula, credits, and academic courses (Harmandar, 2008;Huang, Ball & Wang, 2021), and number of academic courses and credits (Sunay, 2018), there is limited number of studies that aimed to compare and examine doctoral-level educational programs in various world universities. For instance, Yılmaz and Tepe (2019) compared the current situation in educational administration doctoral programs between the United States and Türkiye.…”