As the 21st century is called the knowledge-based society or the digital information-oriented society, it has been rapidly and repeatedly changed and developed. Meanwhile, the design is perceived as a broad concept embracing the national policy and overall lives of society members after exceeding the methodology and production techniques simply for formative products. With the increased interest in design in each area, it is prospected to be more needed to have the active and competent manpower specialized in design for the future society convergence researches, development of industry-university collaboration projects, and the achievement of international standards. Considering such demands of the time, the researches on the improvement measures for design education of Chinese universities would be needed.
Through the comparative analysis on total six universities(three Korean universities & three Chinese universities) focusing on Korean•Chinese visual design, this study established an analysis model based on the necessity of education for training design manpower in China and the establishment of policies for this curriculum. To research the current state of overall education, this study conducted the semi-structured one-to-one in-depth interview on the design educational structure and university design curriculum to cope with changes of the time, targeting a student majoring in visual design of Chinese university, a professor of visual design, and visual designers with career experiences for ten years or more. Based on the preceding researches, this study multilaterally analyzed the interview contents like educational goals, educational curriculum, current operation state of project-type courses, and current state of holding international exchange workshops. This study also suggested the problems and the measures for the cultivation of design manpower of China in the future.
In order for universities to cultivate the design manpower suitable for practical environment, first, the subjects for learning diverse knowledge through the convergence curriculum are added. Second, in order for universities to properly understand/cope with the needs from the practical sites of design education, the horizontal relationship between professor and students is established, and the learner-centered industry-university projects are vitalized. Third, the international education programs are internalized to produce professional designers meeting the international standards. Fourth, in order to cultivate competent designers that could create new values by clarifying the educational goals and converging diverse knowledges, the educational system for convergence education is composed/developed. Therefore, the significance of this study is to develop the future direction of university visual design education for educating diverse competencies through the basic curriculum, diverse project courses, and international workshops.