Master's degree in design - Research-based master's programme for professional designers

Abstract

Governments in many countries around the world are currently investing in design research and
design education. In Denmark, a new research-based masters programme has been launched at
the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture. The purpose is to offer new theoretical
and methodological skills to trained designers with several years of practical experience. The
article outlines the background for and the underlying ideas behind the programme and argues for
the necessity of making the design discipline research-based in order to give the design profession
a similar status to that of architecture. The claim is that the interaction of practical and academic
knowledge in the design training will take the graduates to a higher level than if they only mastered
either a professional or an academic competence.