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The Fundamentals are a big part of the BA curriculum, especially in the first two years. Once the students start being more embedded within their own practices and design research, the Fundamentals —and its three learning lines—become less prominent. The name already says it: we teach the fundamentals of a design practice.

The Graduation Module is guided by a wide variety of tutors. Since every tutor has specific knowledge and expertise, we have interviewed Kay Schuttel, who also teaches in the Fundamentals. and Jeroen van de Gruiter, who also teaches in the Morning Studio, to give their input.

The Focus Ceramics is not about becoming a ceramist, but to explore the relationship to the craft of ceramics. It’s special that students are in the fourth year of study when they enter the Focus. By then, they have been through every step of their education at Design Academy, besides the Focus programme and graduation. Having gone through the education in the studios is important for the Focus, where students start laying their own puzzle. They connect everything they learned before and explore how that fits into their practice. That's when things start to fall into place for them.

In my role as coordinator and supervisor of the Reflections module, I have a broad view on the whole BA programme. We are 12 coaches from different backgrounds, who coach students through their education and reflect about what they can do as designers. We started the Reflections programme two and a half years ago. It’s still a challenge to work with such a diverse group of coaches while making sure to have comparable outcomes for the students. As a coordinator, I want the coaches to have the space to set up their programme in the 20 weeks semester, in a way that fits their qualities and is consistent, following the students in their path. We have a constant exchange between the coaches, check in and learn from each other. As we share our best practices, we create an overall programme that works for most students, while also accepting that people have different rhythms and different ways of working.

As a counterbalance to the more digital and tech-driven world we live in, Studio Thinking Hands moves between cognitive exploration and making with our hands. Many students tend to overthink, bring a lot of words and loose ideas. This is why we seek physicality as a point of discussion. We encourage students to go to the library and physically explore materials and techniques to be able to judge their impact on people, society and the environment. Without the direct experience of having materials in your hands, it's hard to find alternative solutions. Serendipity is important—the idea that surprises within the process lead to discoveries you couldn't have anticipated through thinking alone.