Top 20 Best Design Schools in the World

This list of programs will likely point you in the direction of a program for design majors that best fits your career aspirations in the booming industry. The best design programs in the world include some of the top schools to study design.

What are the top design schools worldwide and Whether you're looking for rankings of the best art design programs to study or just the greatest graphic, spacial, or interior design schools in general.

20. Hong Kong Polytechnic University

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University is a public university located in Hung Hom, Hong Kong. The history of PolyU can be traced back to 1937, and it assumed full university status in 1994.
19. Domus Academy

Domus Academy is a private school of design in Milan, Italy. It offers post-graduate and professional courses in fashion, industrial design, and design management.
18. Delft University of Technology

Delft University of Technology, also known as TU Delft, is the largest and oldest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands.
17. Cranfield University/University of the Arts London

16. China Central Academy of Fine Arts

The Central Academy of Fine Arts or CAFA is an art academy under the direct charge of the Ministry of Education of China. The Manila Bulletin calls the school "China’s most prestigious and renowned art academy".
15. Chiba University

Chiba University and it is also abbreviated as Chibadai is a national university in the city of Chiba, Japan.
14. Case Western Reserve University

Case Western Reserve University is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. The university was created in 1967 by the federation of Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University.
13. Cooper Union

The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly known as Cooper Union or The Cooper Union and informally referred to, especially during the 19th century, as "the Cooper Institute", is a privately funded college located in Cooper Square in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Inspired in 1830 when Peter Cooper learned about the government-supported École Polytechnique in France, Cooper Union was established in 1859.
12. Savannah College of Art and Design

Savannah College of Art and Design, is a private, nonprofit university with locations in Savannah, Georgia, Atlanta, Georgia, Hong Kong, and Lacoste, France.
11. School of Visual Arts

School of Visual Arts is a for-profit art and design college located in Manhattan, New York, founded in 1947.
10. Rochester Institute of Technology

Rochester Institute of Technology is a private university located within the town of Henrietta in the Rochester, New York metropolitan area. RIT is composed of nine academic colleges, including National Technical Institute for the Deaf.
9. California College of the Arts

California College of the Arts is an art, design, architecture, and writing school founded in 1907. It has campuses in San Francisco and Oakland, and it enrolls approximately 1,500 undergraduates and 500 graduate students.
8. D School: Stanford University

The Joint Program in Design or "Stanford Design Program" is a graduate program jointly offered by the Mechanical Engineering Department and the Art Department at Stanford University, in Stanford, in the U.S. state of California.
7. Royal College of Art

The Royal College of Art or RCA is a public research university in London, in the United Kingdom. It offers postgraduate degrees in art and design to students from over 60 countries; it is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the world.
6. Pratt Institute

Pratt Institute is a private, nonsectarian, non-profit institution of higher learning located in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, United States, with a satellite campus located at 14th Street in Manhattan.
5. Parsons The New School for Design

Parsons School of Design is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is one of the seven colleges of The New School.
4. Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university began as the Carnegie Technical Schools, founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1900.
3. University of Cincinnati

The University of Cincinnati is a comprehensive public research university in Cincinnati, in the U.S. state of Ohio, and a part of the University System of Ohio.
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab

1. Art Center College of Design

Art Center College of Design is a nonprofit, private college located in Pasadena, California.