The Retrospect and Prospect of the PhD Programme in Design Science Education in Taiwan

In Taiwan, the doctoral education started in the mid of 80's while the doctoral programme was not acknowledged until the end of 90's. Pursuing researchers from higher education has become a common consensus; hence, the design doctoral programme grew to its peak and the doctoral programme in design science has been establishing progressively. Also, the discussion about the future development of the doctoral programme and whether the graduate student can substitute the dissertation for a design project has arisen. Viewing these issues,the present research tries to examine the current status of design science doctoral education, to deliberate the category of doctoral research field, to explore the trend of curriculum planning of doctoral education and to investigate the research trend of dissertation in doctoral programme in Taiwan. The result of this research indicates that architecture and urban related fields still are the main string of design science; dissertation and special topics are the foundations of doctoral programme, but in the future special topics will be the trend; quality study is the main method used by design science research; and the doctoral degree in design science has different requirements in different departments. It is suggested that the definition of design science field needs to be redefined; the industrial design and commercial design fields needs to be upgraded; the framework of the design science research field needs to be established as base for research.