Universidad del Desarrollo

Mission Statement

The mission of Universidad del Desarrollo’s Design School is to form entrepreneur professionals, innovators and leaders, capable of integrating in the design process, the various types of knowledge and tools of the discipline, understanding and giving value to the methodologies of interdisciplinary work as the structure of their professional activities, contributing to the economic, social and cultural progress, of their context.

While committed to the values and the mission of our University, we strive to become a permanent referent regarding excellence and academic quality, promoting the design discipline as a central factor in innovation and as an engine for the different areas of the Chile’s development.

International Role

The School of Design at UDD consistent with its mission pursues to develop a strong international network with the aim to collaborate to strengthen the international design community, foster the Chilean design exchange between Chile and the world and give a global window for the new generations of designers. The School has established several international connections with academic and design organizations that have brought to Chile more tan 60 top-notch international visitors in the last 3 years, including the organization of three Design Biennials together with PUC Chile. Since 2010 the University holds an academic alliance with the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) of Stanford University and with the Danish non profit organization The Index Project.  Our school is the only Chilean academic institution that has been invited four times to the Salon Satellite de Milano.

National Role

The mission of the School of Design at Universidad del Desarrollo is to train professionals with entrepreneurial spirit, leaders and innovators, able to integrate into the design process, the various areas of knowledge and tools of the discipline and who understand and value the interdisciplinary work methodologies as axis structuring of their professional performance, to contribute to economic, social and cultural environment in which to unfold. The School is relentless in promoting the discipline of design as a central element in the engine of innovation and different areas of development, mission that is carried out countrywide and regionally. Regarding partnerships, on the one hand, the educational model of the School, which embraces a practice-based approach, requires students to be in continuous interaction with the business reality. Consequently the school needs to generate continuously alliances and partnership with companies, ONG’s and different sort of organizations in order to cultivate the ecosystem of organizations necessary to guarantee the educational model. On the other hand, the School of Design of UDD is also well known for the connections it has established with the outside world since its conception in 2000. The school is highly active not only in the continuous organization of exhibitions, design challenges, workshops, open courses, conferences, international visitors, community engagement and significant continuous education, but mostly for the organizations in conjunction with Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile of the last three Biennials of Design organized in Chile, both events of Latin American scope. These enormous exhibitions where attended by nearly 30,000 people each one of them, took place for over 10 days and cost around 2 million dollars each one. They counted with the support of many stakeholders including the most important schools of design of Chile and some international exhibitions, designer’s studios, Chilean and international companies, the Government of Chile through the funding of the Ministry of Economy and Ministry of Culture and ONG’s.

Main Focus

The School is centered in the undergraduate program with a strong focus in design innovation through an interdisciplinary approach in close relationship with companies and the local environment. The Design School of UDD has adopted a competency-based model adapting it to the particularities of the discipline and justified by the need to train competitive professionals, able to perform efficiently, timely and creatively in a business environment increasingly flexible and interdisciplinary. The model has considered the selection of different methodologies to enhance the various skills to be developed by the student during the education period. We believe this model of education in design makes the process of teaching and learning more efficient. This achievement has been possible to observe through indicators that show a high retention and low dropout, low repetition rates, graduation rate close to the estimated time by curriculum, high rates of employment of its graduates and satisfaction of both graduates and employers.