The tone was confrontational in April 2022, when students at Design School Kolding followed up on the rebellion among their fellow students in Copenhagen with an opinion piece titled ‘Academization is threatening our professional competence’ in the national newspaper Politiken. Ultimately, however, the article led to a broader and more inclusive dialogue between the school and its students about academization, enrolment quotas and traineeships.

More workshop time, more in-depth learning, more specific design skills – those were the demands from the students when a revolt broke out in the Royal Danish Academy’s School of Design in the beginning of 2022. Here, the Dean of Design offers her perspectives on the source of this dissatisfaction. What do the students actually need? What promises does design education need to keep? Can create a better design programme together? And what might the future of the profession hold? Dean Mathilde Aggebo talks about design education and student rebellion.

Interview with Tim Ingold Imagine education without any division between crafts and academic learning. Or how about seeing craft as poetry, whether it is expressed materially, verbally or digitally? These are some of the new ways the anthropologist Tim Ingold invites us to think about education and craft. Or as he says: ‘Craft is a way of finding one’s own voice through making things together. But it’s no different with mathematics, history or geography.’