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Criticizing design education has become a popular trend these days. It is often accused of being costly and irrelevant and its value and validity are called in question. Some of the accusations are not baseless. The whole design field is going through major transformations, and educational institutions appear not to pull their weight. Still, as the industry works through its growing pains, the importance of design education seems to be greater than ever.

With tuition costs constantly rising, young people who wish to pursue a career in design – i.e. a broad range of disciplines loosely related to graphic, communication, and UX design – more often than not think of skipping school and foregoing a traditional bachelor’s degree program in favor of a crash online course or the classic school of life. Their reasoning is understandable. Unlike a med school or a degree programme in STEM with their linear course of learning where students are taught facts and procedures in preparation for passing a series of exams, the path of a design student is much more complex. Every school has its own approach, and it makes impossible to quantify the ROI of the design degree costs and estimate the actual job preparedness of a recent design graduate.

But what if we change a perspective and reflect on design universities as spaces where future designers can thrive on the luxury of learning, cultivating innovation and ambition? To determine if tuition costs are appropriate, it is essential to consider what a student gains from the experience – and in case with the design school it is not solely about skills and knowledge, it is about an access to an environment that is not easily found elsewhere.

According to Abbott Miller, partner of Pentagram, “What you’re buying in design education is not an imprimatur to get a job. It is a face-to-face, collaborative experience in a real physical space.”

Of course, design school is not the only place to get professional mentorship, but it is really the most obvious way. Operating designers set client briefs for students in traditional universities, design gurus visit as guest lecturers and even teach as professors. This generous resource could be not available elsewhere for a new designer in the industry. On the contrary, agencies often do not allow young designers to present their work and have poor internal communications in general.

Teamwork during the years of study is also crucial. The shared experiences and growth while studying can build long-lasting relationships among peers and bring fruit in the future.

Within this context, the importance of design education is in providing a framework for practicing soft skills, such as adaptability, ability to work in a team, social intelligence, and good communication, which according to the recent Forbes survey involving hundreds of companies, rank the highest among top qualities that companies are looking for in future hires. All these traits can be learned through design education with its system of design critiques, student presentations, and team projects, which occur in safe environment and with respect for young designers’ delicate egos.

Design schools also allows students unconstrained freedom of experimentation across all levels. First, it provides access to numerous resources that can be quite costly without a student pass, such as letterpress facilities, computer programs, and photography studios, which are generally free for students. Secondly, while the majority of designers will begin a career restricted to client deadlines and production requirements, design school is a safe space where creativity is not hindered by budgets and clients’ whims. This immunity to real-world restrictions sets a foundation to the mindset of the future designer who is expected to generate innovation and impact in their work.

Speaking of the job market, the mindset in future-facing companies is shifting. The role of the designer is no longer a supporting role — it is one that leads. In this respect, formal design education involves preparing students to become great problem solvers, ready to deal with today’s large, complex problems.

From this prospective, to shape the curriculum as a standardized application-oriented, ready-for-the-job set of tools and skills would be a limiting strategy. Many popular professions of today were completely unheard of 10 years ago. Following this trend, today’s computer programs will soon be outdated and familiar design processes will be reimagined, so it is natural that businesses want to prepare. Within the context of such an uncertain future, it is vital that the new generation of designers is equipped with skills that can empower them to manage complex and unfamiliar conditions with ease and confidence.

And here is where formal design education steps in. Traditional educational institutions aim to teach students to think critically, be observant and resourceful. When it comes to real-world skills, a design school isn’t out of date, it is timeless, for its key value is that of learning how to learn. It is only challenging the status quo that can lead the industry into the future.

Sure enough, there is a lot of things that can be improved and amplified in traditional design schools to make students better prepared for the real world of design careers. However, in this era of seismic shifts in the design industry, formal design education seems to be more important than ever. It teaches future designers a mindset and attitude towards life itself and empowers them to reach their full potential in creativity, self-efficacy, and collaboration. One should be ready to disrupt the routine to be able to change the world. Perhaps design education is the answer.

A study conducted in nine European countries shows that “Entrepreneurship education has a positive impact on the entrepreneurial mindset of young people, their intentions towards entrepreneurship, their employability and finally on their role in society and the economy.” That also implies that if higher education institutions offered more entrepreneurial-minded vocational education and training programmes for young people, Gen Z may re-consider investing in college.

What else does this mean for “traditional” colleges and universities? If they want to remain competitive, they need to adapt. Gen Zers’ demand for more affordable education leads to evolution of tuition pricing. More often than not learners tend to choose large institutions, often called “mega-universities, that are known for providing comparatively low-cost options as a result of complete rethinking of their tuition models. Some examples include subscription pricing, monthly payment plans and charging a flat rate that is inclusive of all fees and additional costs.

Another trigger that has forced some members of Gen Z to rethink the value of a traditional four-year college education is the impact of COVID-19 pandemic that expedited the shift towards blended and online education. Online learning is no longer considered to be an alternative option for adult learners, but is steadily growing in popularity among younger students as well. Moreover, even for those Generation Z students who choose to attend in-person classes, living off-campus is no longer unusual. One survey indicates that nearly 20 per cent of Generation Z college students who plan to attend a college intend to live at home and commute to campus.

While accommodation is no longer a “must” for contemporary institutions catering for Generation Z students, some services become more and more crucial. For example, being keenly aware of their mental health, as well as their emotional and psychological needs, this next generation of students needs support services like advising and counseling throughout their college journey. Aiming to respond to this, schools ramp up their mental health services, providing group therapy, workshops, yoga and a variety of other wellness-focused offerings.

The students starting college today are also more diverse than ever before, which means diversity and inclusion are becoming top priorities. Attentive to inclusion across race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity, they want higher education institutions to live up to those ideals as well. Students are no longer satisfied by rhetoric about the value of diversity and inclusion, but rather want to see actual progress in the form of initiatives and organizations. To adapt, some institutions have created distinct departments, or joined multi-school alliances, that promote diversity and inclusion.

All this said, a question arises – what can higher education professors do to teach, engage and serve this new unique generation that comes into the classroom? It looks like traditional teaching strategies, which have been used in the past decades – if not centuries – despite what generation is in the classroom, are not suitable for Gen Zers.

Generation Z is digital, so teachers are challenged to be skilled in different types of devices, programmes, and applications that can be integrated into their classes. However, the use of technology is not the only strategy that should be rethought. Educators should also search for new ways of assessment and methods to present material to students of Generation Z using new digital platforms. Teaching practice should be renewed, in order to connect Gen Z with a digital imprint to real environments, where problems can be addressed from new teaching methodologies with the help of technology.

The primary concern of those who have to teach Generation Z is how well the students are learning the material, with all the e-distractions affecting the classroom environment. Delivering course material with connected laptops, IPads and constant phone checking around could be challenging by itself, but teaching Gen Zers has its special issues as well. Recent studies report the Generation Z attention span at 8 seconds down from the Millennials’ 12 seconds. Keeping their focus requires varying methods of stimulation and connecting them to the learning process.

Today’s students refuse to be passive learners. They are not interested in simply showing up for class, sitting through a lecture, and taking notes to memorize for an exam later on. Instead, they expect to be fully engaged and to be a part of the learning process themselves. For example, Generation Z students are virtual gamers, and they love game challenges, which means Gen Z students can become very active and put forth a lot of concentration on the game. They can also be effective to allow students to share knowledge. At the same time, active and experiential learning activities, such as “one minute papers” that imply writing a short summary in teams or individually, can address the issue of the short attention span by helping the teacher to identify what needs to be reviewed.

While traditional methods of evaluation through exams and research papers solely tell professors what students have memorized for a specific exam or what they know about a specific topic, the new generation needs real-life knowledge that can be related to their job area. Besides, Generation Z students prefer to answer short, online exams, some of which can even be completed using smartphones.

Several studies show that Gen Z demand a more individual approach, more flexibility in work regarding assignments and schedules. While it could be challenging to provide individual training to each student, educators can nevertheless encourage works in teams – a learning method much preferred by Generation Z,  – which helps them foster more creativity.

Now, that the generation of young people who grew up with cell phones and had Instagram before starting high school comprise the body of the prospective student pool, colleges and universities need to think about a major transformation of the whole system of higher education. To appeal to Gen Zers, schools have to adjust to meet the expectations of Generation Z college students, and the entire higher education experience is changing as a result.