Design Knowledge and PhD Education in Design in Taiwan

This paper tried to sketch possible racing routes for Taiwan’s doctoral design programs among many others in the world. It first briefly reviewed the two perspectives of knowledge defined by ancient Greek philosophers. An extensive review of design knowledge followed to serve as the assumed finishing line for the doctorate education in design, covering the characteristics and taxonomy, nature and scope as well as the process of generation and application of it proposed by modern scholars. A survey on current Ph.D. in Design programs offered at four design colleges in Taiwan was done to find out the starting points for each of them. Then, the strengths, weakness, opportunities as well as threats of the four were further analyzed and expounded. Comparing to foreign PhD in Design programs, Taiwan’s, in general, tend to cover a broader range on both curriculum and research topics, except on cultural coverage. Therefore, to succeed in the global racing on doctorate education in design, Taiwan needs to carefully choose promising research targets to focus on while making an extra effort to broaden the sources of its incoming faculty members and Ph.D. students.