School of Design is currently one of the most distinctive and dynamic schools in Hefei University with all together 1,013 students on campus. Among the 69 faculty members, 80% are lecturers or associate professors (14) or professors (7). 93% of the faculty have got Master’s degree, 3 of them Doctor’s degree, and 1 pursing a Doctoral degree. Many of our full-time teachers have graduated from domestic or overseas renowned design universities, including universities in Germany, the UK, Japan, Australia, and South Korea.
In recent years, the teachers have undertaken more than 60 national or provincial teaching and scientific research projects, and more than 80 municipal or school level ones. The School has published over 40 monographs and textbooks, as well as more than 300 papers in provincial or higher-level journals, with over 40 of them indexed by SCI, EI, and CSSCI. The faculty have obtained 11 Teaching Quality and Teaching Achievement Awards, including 2 first prizes for National Teaching Achievement Award. The School has 2 Provincial Excellent Teacher Studios and Teaching Teams, together with 3 teachers entitled “Provincial Outstanding Teacher”, 3 “Provincial New Teaching Star” and 1 expert enjoying the special allowance from the Anhui provincial government.
The School has 4 departments: Department of Industrial Design, Digital Media Design, Creative Life Design and Spatial Design, offering 7 undergraduate programs: Industrial Design, Product Design, Visual Communication Design, Environmental Design, Animation, Art and Technology, and Arts and Crafts, among which, Industrial Design is a national-level comprehensive reform pilot program, Anhui Provincial First-class Undergraduate Program, and Anhui Provincial Distinctive Program, while Animation is an Anhui Provincial First-class Undergraduate Program, and Anhui Provincial Distinctive Program. The School boasts over 10 professional laboratories equipped with advanced teaching equipment, with a total value of nearly 30 million yuan.
The School adopts the “project-driven” method for cultivating applied professionals on the basis of industry-education integration. Adhering to school-enterprise cooperation to break through the shackles of traditional teaching concepts, the industry-university-research platform established at the School has carried out in-depth cooperation with well-known domestic enterprises, to improve its practical teaching and design innovation and application. The School has witnessed the titles of “National Engineering Practical Education Center”, “Anhui Provincial Industrial Design Center”, and “Hefei Industrial Design Center”.
Since 2001, the School has regularly carried out Sino-German industrial design WORKSHOP cooperation projects with such universities as Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts and Magdeburg University of Applied Sciences annually, and so far 21 sessions have been held, each presenting a different theme with special characteristics. Besides, since 2015, it has carried out 5 sessions of cross-strait college students’ cultural and creative design WORKSHOP projects with Taiwan Yunlin University of Science and Technology and Taiwan Ming Chuan University. These workshops are in line with local agricultural product packaging design and brand building to facilitate poverty alleviation for rural revitalization and local development through in-depth school-enterprise cooperation. Years of practical teaching exploration has made WORKSHOP cooperation projects richer in contents and more novel in forms, which has become an important part and a highlight of practical teaching in Hefei University.
In recent years, the School’s teaching reform through industry-university-research collaborative education has been fruitful. Students of the School have won more than 200 awards in a series of such professional competitions at home and abroad, as Red Dot Design Award, Golden Dolphin Award, Challenge Cup, and the art performance for college students.