School of Art and Design, Shanghai Polytechnic University was founded in 2007. In 2023, the university’s Arts Education Center and related higher vocational programs were integrated into the school. At present, the school has five first-class undergraduate programs: Product Design, Visual Communication Design, Digital Media Art, Environment Design and Industrial Design and one higher vocational programs: Image Design, of which Product Design is a first-class vocational program in China. The school has a master's degree program in Design, which consists of Systematic Study and Design of Product, Omnimedia Visual Communication Design, and Materials Art and Space Application Design. Over the years, the school has always implemented the school philosophy of “designing for reason and application”, the teaching mode of “integration of industry, teaching and research”, the teaching method of “combining arts with engineering, creativity with technology, and curriculum with industry”. It adopts the teaching method of “combining art with engineering, creativity with technology, and curriculum with industry” and emphasizes on the cooperation between industries and universities and the transformation of achievements.
The school has a number of research centers such as Digital Literature and Tourism Design Research Center, National Institute of Industrial Design (in the field of eco-design) “Eco-design Standard Research Center”, Urban and Rural Design Research Center, Literature and Tourism Product Design Research Center and so on, among which, the Digital Literature and Tourism Design Research Center is a Shanghai-level design innovation center. It has a number of industry-education integration bases such as Yiwu Innovation Design Industry-Academy-Research Base and Shanghai Jahwa Group Design Innovation Center, etc. It also has a comprehensive creativity experimental center, which consists of a design technology laboratory (color and material laboratory, ergonomics laboratory, behavioral observation laboratory), a cultural and creative realization laboratory (creative handicrafts workshop, model making workshop, digital molding workshop, ceramics workshop, glaze workshop, modeling workshop), Digital Image Laboratory (Photography Workshop, Digital Image Workshop), Digital Technology Laboratory (Virtual Production Center, Multimedia Comprehensive Effect and Editing Room, Integrated Rendering Center, Data Storage Center), etc., which provide a solid guarantee for the school’s teachers and students of the experimental training and research.
The school now has more than 700 full-time undergraduates, more than 50 postgraduates, and 65 teaching staff, among which, 50 are Professional Master's Degree teachers, 4 are professors, 14 are associate professors, 91% of the teachers are above the Master's Degree, and 69% of the teachers are dual-teachers who have the experience of practicing in the enterprises. Teachers have emerged a number of other well-known professors and designers in China who won “China Design Industry Top Ten Designers” “China Glass Fine Arts Master” “Guanghua Dragon Award Winner” and a number of outstanding young talents who won domestic and international awards such as China Design Red Star Award, Golden Dot Design Award, Red Dot Award, iF Award, etc. At the same time, the school has also appointed a number of famous designers (professors) in the industry as external tutors, and the talents of the universities and enterprises collaborating in the joint cultivation.
In the past three years, through the concerted efforts of the faculty and staff, the school has achieved remarkable results in disciplinary competitions, scientific research, professional construction and school-enterprise cooperation, etc. Students have won more than 500 awards in provincial, ministerial and above disciplinary competitions, including more than 70 national awards; the school’s teachers have been approved for more than 10 national and provincial projects such as the National Social Science Fund, the National Fine Arts Fund, Shanghai Pujiang Program, Shanghai Arts Science Project, Shanghai Science and Technology Commission Science and Technology Special Project, etc., and have obtained 6 first-class or key courses of Shanghai, and a number of teachers have been awarded national and provincial teaching competition awards; the school focuses on the integration of industry and education, and actively organizes teachers and students to participate in scientific research, professional construction, school-enterprise cooperation and other aspects. The school pays attention to the integration of industry and education, actively organizes teachers and students to carry out local service work, and carries out nearly 100 relevant project designs for enterprises and institutions such as Deli Group, Jinqiao Group, Zhou Huchen Cao Sugong, Jahwa Group, Da Tuan Town, Cao Lu Town, Gao Xing Town, etc. The school actively develops more than 20 practice teaching bases and more than 20 national and ministerial projects. The school actively develops more than 20 practice bases, including 5 industry leading enterprises or municipal important platform enterprises, which provides an important platform base for the school to cultivate talents.
From now on, the school will always adhere to the school philosophy of “design to the reason to use”, adhere to the moral education, active reform and innovation, the pursuit of excellence, in order to build a distinctive characteristics of the high level of modernity with strong design application and research capabilities art and design school and strive for hard work.