Organisation and management
Design School Kolding is an independent institution with its own board of directors and a board of representatives made up of a number of designers and representatives from the industry. The programmes are under the auspices of the Danish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Higher Education. Design School Kolding is headed by the Rector, who is employed by and refers to the school’s board of directors, who have overall responsibility for the school. The board of directors is made up of elected members of the board of representatives, all of whom have professional design or industrial experience. The management of the school is undertaken by the school’s heads of department – the Prorector, the Head of Administration, the Head of Education, the Head of Research – and the Rector. In the day-to-day management of Design School Kolding, the Rector is assisted by the management team/rectorate.
Contact
Board of Directors
External representatives
- Nanna Ulrich Gudum, Head of Design, LEGO Group (chairperson)
- Merete Due Paarup, City Council Member, Kolding Municipality (vice chairperson)
- Hans Christian Asmussen, Designer, Owner of NATiON
- Rune Kirt, CEO, Architect & Co-founder, KIRTxTHOMSEN
- Michael Qvortrup, Design Manager, Industrial Designer, Artlinco
- Karsten Uno Petersen, Member of the Regional Council, Region Syddanmark (alternate member)
Internal representatives
- Lene Tanggaard, Rector
- Anne-Mette Hummel Holm, Director of Administration and Business Development, prorector
- Eva Kappel, Director of Education
- Lene Nyhus Friis, Project Director, Head of Lab for Play & Design, Lab for Social Design and Lab for Sustainability and Design
- Charlotte Melin, Head of Communications
- August Severin Kjærholm Rizzi, DSR
- Marie Louise Junker Jacobsen, DSR
- Karina Sørensen, Employee Representative
- Helle Graabæk, Employee Representative
Contact
The Board of Representatives
The board of representatives at Design School Kolding elects the school's board and serves as a contact and debate forum to support the school's development. The board of representatives consists of members appointed by various professional associations.
Appointed by Design Denmark
- Rune Kirt, CEO, Architect & Co-founder, KIRTxTHOMSEN (member of the Board of Directors)
- Christina Halskov, Partner, Halskov Design Studio
- Carsten Nguyen Henriksen, Independent Brand Design Consultant; Carsten Henriksen Studio
Appointed by the Danish Arts and Crafts Association
- Hans Christian Asmussen, Designer, owner of NATiON (member of the Board of Directors)
- Lene Thomasen, Textile Designer, owner of Tekstilwerk
Appointed by the Region of Southern Denmark
- Karsten Uno Petersen, Member of the Regional Council (alternate member, the Board of Directors)
Appointed by Kolding Municipality
- Merete Due Paarup, Member of the City Council, Kolding Municipality (vice chairperson of the Board of Directors and the Board of Representatives)
Appointed by the Danish Federation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
- Bo Ulsøe, CEO, Blunico A/S Appointed by the Confederation of Danish Industry
- Lise Thomsen, Head of Subject, DI Kreative Erhverv
- Morten Bach Jensen, Group Vice President, Grundfos Holding A/S
- Michael Qvortrup, Design Manager, Industrial Designer, Artlinco (member of the Board of Directors)
- Kresten Bjørn Krab-Bjerre, Creative Director, Atelier, Bang & Olufsen A/S
- Anne Qvist, Architect MAA & industrial designer, Anne Qvist Design Office
Appointed by Dansk Fashion & Textiles
- Morten Dybro, Head of Sales and Development, Dansih Fashion & Textiles
Appointed by the IT Industry
- Sara Marie Alvad, CEO, 1508 Aarhus
Appointed by the Danish Producers' Association
- Ida Hartmann, Freelance Story Person, Illustrator & Comic Artist, Idahartmann.com
Appointed by the Danish Chamber of Commerce
- Farid Fellah, CEO, Rosan Bosch Studio
Appointed by the Organisation Danish Museums
- Berit Anne Larsen, Director of Learning and Interpretation, Statens Museum for Kunst (SMK)
Appointed by the Danish Entrepreneurs' Association
- Frederikke Antonie Schmidt, Founder & Creative director, roccamore
External representatives appointed by the Board of Directors
- Nanna Ulrich Gudum, Head of Design, LEGO Group (chairperson of the Board of Directors and the Board of Representatives)
Core values
Values: Social inclusion, sustainability, cultural diversity.
Vision: Design School Kolding wants to be one of Denmark's and the world's leading design universities. We want to make an impact on the world. And we insist on the power of the hand, the mind and the heart.
Goal: Design School Kolding is a self-governing institution of further learning under the auspices of the Ministry of Higher Education and Science. It educates designers at Bachelor, Master’s and PhD levels based on the triple knowledge base: Research, artistic development work and practice. The Bachelor course is in Danish, the Master’s course is in English.
Mission: Designers from Design School Kolding should
- use design to develop products, systems and organisations, which promote sustainable ecology.
- contribute with a deep and trained sense of and knowledge about aesthetics, function and users together with other subjects and professions.
- create connections by listening to others and by processing materials with your hands, mind and heart.
- work in cross-disciplinary teams on challenging and solving large societal problems and issues of our time, such as climate change, lack of welfare and social inequality.
- engage and use the tools of the design process in research collaborations and research networks nationally and internationally
Strategic focus areas: Sustainability, welfare, play.
Strategy
Design School Kolding's strategic framework agreement with the Ministry serves as our strategy.
Design research
In 2010, Design School Kolding was granted the status of research-based education, and has a research and educational structure following the principles of the Bologna Declaration. The development of the programme and the construction of a design research environment are key tasks for the school in the coming years, as society and industry are making ever greater demands on the designers being trained. Designers must be able to understand and engage in increasingly complex contexts both societally and production-wise.
Cooperation with industry
Cooperation with Danish and foreign industry is a cornerstone of Design School Kolding’s strategy. The school is committed to continuously building and maintaining good relations with industry. Representatives of the Confederation of Danish Industries and the design industry sit on the school’s board of representatives and board of directors, and thus directly participate in discussions regarding the aims and content of the programme. The school works continuously to develop its close cooperation relations with industry. The school’s increased efforts with regard to major development projects, business partnerships and internships have raised far greater awareness of the innovative potential of the programme internally and externally, and a much broader employment perspective.
International collaborations
Internationally, Design School Kolding is assuming a leading position. The school is part of the well-run cooperation network in the Nordic countries and the EU, and also has cooperation agreements with various design schools outside the EU. To ensure that Design School Kolding continues to develop, and can measure up to the best, it is a strategic area for the school to continuously nurture and develop international contacts, networks and partnerships, and benchmark the school’s programmes with some of the world’s best design schools.
Danish design and Danish design education continue to enjoy a high level of international recognition – something a representative of the design education meets in the programme’s EU network as well as in the design community in Europe and China. In an increasingly tough global competition, design and innovation are key competitive parameters in Denmark today and in the future, which naturally places focus on improving the quality of the design education.