ID Education in HK

Interior design education has not been part of mainstream formal education in Hong Kong, and was rather seen as a specialized field of study. Lee Wai Lee Technical Institute started to offer design education in the late 1970’s. The first interior design program in Hong Kong offered by the Education Department, with courses held at  Lee Wai Lee Technical Institute while the qualification was conferred by the Education Department instead of the institute. The first bachelor’s degree in interior design was offered by Swire School of Design at The Hong Kong Polytechnic in the 1980s. In 2007, Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI) was formed with the aim of providing quality education that cultivates knowledge, professionalism and new talents for the evolving creative industries. The institute was established by the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (IVE) by bringing together various design disciplines under one roof. It mainly offers higher diploma courses in interior design. The Hong Kong Polytechnic attained university status in 1994 and became the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) with funding provided by the University Grants Committee(UGC). Its School of Design, with over 1200 students, is the only institution offering design education at the higher level in Hong Kong. In the past few years, PolyU’s School of Design has been ranked among the top 60 in the world and among the ten best in Asia. PolyU had been evolving into an applied-research institute, and focuses its attention not only on cultivating professional talents, but also encouraging research output in different arenas. Starting in 2012, the School will offer the first Master’s level program related to interior design in Hong Kong, called the Master of Design (Urban Environments Design). According to the school’s prospectus, the program will “focus on the analysis and design of hybrid and composite interior environments, urban public spaces and urban systems and strategies.”

In addition to these two schools, there are also a large number of other institutes that offer interior design courses in Hong Kong, which aim at fostering qualified and professional interior designers or practitioners to fulfill the employment needs of a growing interior design industry. At the same time, interior design has been is forced to struggle for legitimacy as an academic discipline since it there is not a great deal of research emphasis, and the number of degree holders in the field is still limited. This problem of academic legitimacy is not limited to Hong Kong, but is one that the interior design discipline has to contend with all over the world.

In Hong Kong, the majority of interior design courses that are offered are at sub-degree level, including higher diploma, diploma and certificate level courses. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University is the only institute to provide bachelor’s degree courses independently, while a number of other institutions collaborate with overseas universities to offer top-up programs. The HKDI offers higher diploma courses in interior design, as well as top-up degree courses in association with overseas universities. Caritas Bianchi College of Careers offers a two-year higher diploma course in 3D Spatial Design as well as an Associate Degree in Design (Interior Architecture) program. The HKU School of Professional Continuing Education (HKU SPACE) offers a 3-year higher diploma program in interior design, and graduates may study for a further two years to gain a top-up degree offered in association with an overseas university in the United Kingdom or the United States. UNiART School of Design offers a one-year higher diploma in interior design, and is purported to be the only institution that teaches according to a master-apprentice system. Other colleges that offer interior design courses include Chingying Institute of Visual Arts and First Institute of Art and Design, which offer diploma courses in interior design. A full list of interior design programs in Hong Kong is listed in Table 1. Interior design education in Hong Kong is not well supervised by governmental authority or the industry. Most institutions are free to make up their own curricula, and because many of these programs are self funded, their course content may not necessarily be accredited.