Bachelor Programme
A Bachelor’s degree at Design Academy Eindhoven is a four-year programme that offers students the opportunity to develop their own answers to these fundamental questions.
We live in a designed world, surrounded by objects, systems and processes that have been created by humans. Designers have the power to affect change through their work, influencing everyday life and shaping behaviours from the micro to the macro level.
Bachelor students at DAE are provided with space, support and guidance to explore their relationship with design, as well as its potential as a tool for positive action in a world that is in constant flux. DAE nurtures independent thinking and encourages students to engage deeply with themselves and with their environment, to be curious and to question their assumptions, and to interrogate systems of power, of knowledge and of production.
At DAE, we believe in 'designing the designer'. All BA students follow three main programme lines: Fundamentals, Studios and Reflections. This structure is designed to encompass important development opportunities and gradually offer students more agency and independence within their studies.
Our ultimate aim is to help students discover their own position in relation to design and as a designer, and foster a critical but open approach that will help in their professional development after graduating from DAE, whichever path they choose to follow.
PRACTICAL APPROACH
'Learning through making' is a central concept at DAE. Consequently, there is a strong focus on 'doing' – whether it is experimenting with manufacturing, developing a stream of research or collaborating with fellow students to test solutions and explore problems.
The schools' workshops play a key part in the BA programme, with eight spaces dedicated to different materials. For more technical work, the school has fostered partnerships with specialist centres for production, including the TextielLab in Tilburg, Glasmuseum Leerdam, Make Eindhoven, the EKWC (the European Ceramic Work Centre) in Den Bosch and Bruns (a model-making company) in Bergeijk.
Tutors at DAE are practising professionals and work part-time at the school. With more than 150 designers, theorists, curators, writers, artists and researchers among the faculty, students are exposed to actual working practices throughout their studies and are often invited to work on real-world projects, either within their programme or through the school's collaborations with organisations outside of the Academy.
STRUCTURE
All BA studies at DAE last for four years and follow a core structure with three main programmes: Fundamentals, Studios and Reflections, as well as an internship period, a Focus period and the build-up to Graduation and the Final Exam.
The Fundamentals programme is dedicated to acquiring knowledge, skills, tools and insights that form the basis of contemporary design practice.
This programme line brings students from all study years together in mixed groups around a fixed coach/facilitator.
Taking place in the fourth year of the BA, Focus is a space for students to deepen and/or broaden their knowledge of matter, materials, techniques, and production. Students can choose a Focus module that best suits their personal approach or methodology. All students within the Focus programme work according to the method of ‘understanding, experimenting, documenting, presenting and reflecting’.
The internship takes place in the second half of the third year, when students complete placements within a professional environment and gain practical experience in different types of practice.
During the last semester of the programme, students will work under the guidance of various tutors on two self-defined projects that enable them to express a personal profile as a designer. Students will be challenged to combine the content and experiences gained from various studios and translate them into personal projects.
ABOUT THE BA STUDIOS
DAE’s Studios offer BA students the opportunity to experience and work with different views of design and approaches to design research and making.
The BA Studios were introduced in 2021, replacing the previous system of BA departments. There are currently 9 Studios, each representing a different view of design, with a different focus and approach to design research and practice. Each Studio is led by design professionals, who work at DAE alongside running their own practice.
Studio Body Building stands for a gut feeling, a sense of curiosity, of having noticed something.
Studio Digital-Native interrogates systems of oppression operating through our digital infrastructures and media and how these manifest in our material world.
What is design? No matter what it is, it is in constant change. What matters is what we want to do with it. In Studio Do-Make we learn design by doing design, and we learn design by making design.
Where public and private meet, merge and crossover, an exciting field emerges for designers.
Studio Silva Systems is dedicated to the concept of the forest as a superorganism for design and practice with ecological accountability.
Studio technogeographies aims to bring complex systems of design, extraction, transportation, manufacturing, commerce, consumption, and geopolitical forces, both human and non-human, from sites across the world to the centre of bachelor design education.
Studio Thinking Hands focuses on the crucial relationship between mind and body in the creative field. It is a course of study designed to counterbalance the virtual aspects of modern life, far away from screens, 3D models, or copy cut Instagram accounts. The Studio teaches students how to enhance and build an inquisitive and intellectual mind with making and crafting as a part of the design process.
In an effort to escape the meaningless blah blah blah culture embedded in global political, social, economic and environmental realities, Studio Turn Around aims to be a beacon of optimism and a driver for sustainable, people-centred experiences.
TURN AROUND and LOOK AHEAD.
The Morning Studio explores design as a tool for constructive protest and collective action.
APPLICATIONS
DAE is one of the world's leading design schools, with an international reputation that attracts students from around the globe. Applications are oversubscribed every year, meaning students must be very talented to be accepted. Find out more about the applications process.
Dutch school leavers can also explore their interest in studying design and develop a portfolio before applying to the BA programme with DAE's Foundation Year.
DAE is an HBO (Hoger beroepsonderwijs) – an official classification for a higher education institute in The Netherlands. This means that, if students meet the conditions, they could apply for for Studiefinanciering (the Dutch student grants and loans system) and that the school is open to students with a certificate for Dutch HAVO / VWO / MBO-4 or a foreign equivalent.