Nine competencies, six unites - industrial design education at TU/e

In September 2001 Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) started a five-year Industrial Design (ID) course with a focus on designing intelligent products, systems and services. Students learn to integrate various approaches in the design process such as human, socio-cultural and technological aspects. Generating innovative concepts and original ideas are emphasized in the course. Taking into account recent developments in both the professional and educational field the Department of ID has based the course on an educational model in which competency development and self-directed learning are pivotal. The metaphor used for this model is ‘the student as a junior employee’. In the paper a comprehensive picture of the educational model is presented. In addition, first and second year projects are shown to illustrate how the focus of students' competency development shifts from awareness to depth and to identity building in the course of the Bachelor's