Dubai: Admissions are now open for the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation (DIDI), where students will design their own degree programme, use creativity to solve real-world problems and prepare for future-ready jobs, DIDI officials said on Monday.
DIDI will offer a four-year Bachelor of Design Degree (BDes), with the curriculum designed in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Parsons School of Design.
DIDI — a private, not-for-profit establishment — has been accredited by the Ministry of Education and will enrol its first students in Fall 2018, in September.
Tuition fees for the academic year 2018/19 have been set at Dh98,000, inclusive of studio fees.
According to the 2016 MENA Design Education Outlook report, the Middle East and North Africa region will require 30,000 new design graduates by 2019.
Mohammad Abdullah, president of DIDI, said: “With such a huge demand for design graduates required in the region by 2019, DIDI will champion talent development to fuel the growth of the industry. We are confident that DIDI will be the design school of choice in the region for the next generation of innovators.”
Students will be given the freedom to design their own degree by choosing a “cross disciplinary” education from a choice of four concentrations: Product Design, Strategic Design Management, Multimedia Design, and Fashion Design, working across two disciplines the entirety of their educational journey.
Sass Brown, founding dean of DIDI, said: “At DIDI we will nurture our students to use design as a tool to make a better world, with sustainability and ethics interwoven in everything we do. We will equip our graduates with the knowledge and skill to take today’s ideas and make them into tomorrow’s reality.”
DIDI, located in Dubai Design District, will offer students the opportunity to collaborate with designers based there. The campus, designed by award-winning architects Foster + Partners, has giant open-plan “mega studios” on each of the five floors.
With the capacity to accommodate 500 students, each student will have a dedicated desk space in which to create his or her works.
Following the direction of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, DIDI was established by Dubai Holding and Dubai Creative Clusters Authority.
Hani Asfour, associate dean at DIDI, told Gulf News it was essential for the wider community to understand the nature and purpose of the design sector.
“Design isn’t about making things pretty. Designers need to be in the boardroom, they need to be part of the decision-making process, as has been shown over and over again in the world. [Apple Cofounder] Steve Jobs understood that from the beginning. He hired Jony Ive to be [Chief Design Officer], to take on that role, and look at where Apple is today as opposed to others … The main differentiator of Apple is how the product feels — how it makes you feel as the user — and how it looks. That’s design.”
