The First Cohort of DAE’s Renewed BA Programme Graduates

This year's BA ceremony marked the end of a particularly intense graduation week. Students built, presented and defended their projects in unusually high temperatures, while ice cream, melon and bottles of water circulated throughout the DAE’s building.

Opening the ceremony, DAE's General Director, Raf De Keninck, turned the traditional graduation speech around. Rather than focusing on what the students had learned, he spoke about what the academy had learned from them because, as the first cohort to complete the renewed BA programme, the students had not simply moved through a new curriculum; they had actively helped to test and shape it.

De Keninck recalled waiting for the lift one morning in October 2022 and overhearing two first-year students discussing how they planned to navigate the programme. As they mapped different routes through studios, internships and graduation, he realised they had already begun to understand and embrace the new model before the organisation itself had fully settled into it. For De Keninck, the moment showed that educational renewal cannot simply be designed on paper. It only becomes real when students question it, test it and make it their own.

He also described design as an often uncomfortable discipline. Rather than offering easy answers, the graduating projects confronted questions around materials, bodies, technology, care, ecology, identity, labour, memory and power. “We have taught you,” he concluded, “but you have also taught us.”

"Rather than offering easy answers, the graduating projects confronted questions around materials, bodies, technology, care, ecology, identity, labour, memory and power."

Head of the Bachelor Programme Janneke Schreuder followed, congratulating the graduates and reminding them of their first class in the auditorium on 29 August 2022. She thanked Carline Zoete, DAE’s Event Producer, Monique Borsboom, Programme Coordinator and the facilities, communications and student administration teams, alongside everyone else who supported the students through the final week.

Reflecting on the exhibition, Schreuder noted how frequently projects combined different subjects, materials and methods. Political and cultural histories appeared alongside personal and family archives. Questions of war, colonial history and minority experience were explored in projects that focused on subjects including domestic memory, rural life and the ties between families and place.

Robyn Sonntag, Tereza Hubová, Felix van Gent, Ella Feldner Busztin and Hanna Rymkiewicz graduated Cum Laude and the ceremony also included the announcement of nominees for the René Smeets Award and the Melkweg Award which will be announced at Dutch Design Week.

After the speeches, the graduates divided into fourteen clusters across the building to sign their diplomas. These smaller gatherings were more intimate, with tutors reflecting on each graduate’s work and development. In one cluster, a tutor spoke about a body of work shaped by a long connection to the sea. Research into marine plastic pollution had developed through interviews, repeated testing and collaboration. Another project transformed split leather into a series of interior objects, prompting a reflection on design as something rooted not only in individual authorship, but also in working with others.

Meanwhile, parents and friends moved through the exhibition on the fourth and fifth floors and students explained their projects again, this time without the pressure of an examination. Families took photographs and graduates introduced their parents to friends and classmates, while others sat wherever they could find space to escape the heat.

The diploma signings made the ending official. After four years of study, the graduates signed their names and entered the world beyond the academy. We wish them the best of luck with their next steps, alongside a huge congratulations for all they have achieved.