Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation Unveils New Scholarships for Create talent
The Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation (DIDI), the region’s only university offering a Bachelor of Design degree, has announced new scholarships to promote creative talent and reinforce Dubai’s status as a UNESCO Creative City of Design.
Two scholarships for UAE nationals covering the full four-year Bachelor of Design degree, worth AED 392,000 each, will be offered by the university for talented Emirati students. Partial scholarships have also been made available for students needing financial aid as well as high-achieving high school graduates with a score of 90 per cent or above.
Applications have already opened for the 2021-2022 academic year and students have until July to apply for a scholarship with DIDI, which is located in the heart of Dubai Design District (d3), the Middle East’s premier creative platform dedicated to design, fashion, architecture, art and retail.
Established in 2018, DIDI’s curriculum was developed in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Parsons School of Design in New York – two of the world’s top universities in the fields of design and technology. It has created a non-traditional structure, whereby students can map and combine two design disciplines from four – Product Design, Multimedia Design, Fashion Design and Strategic Design Management. This ‘combinatory education’ not only prepares students for a variety of future career pathways, but also provides them with necessary hybrid skills by blending visual literacy, technology fluency and strategic proficiency. They are also taught complex problem solving, creativity and critical thinking – skills the World Economic Forum believes are vital for success in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Commenting on the scholarships, Mohammad Abdullah, President of DIDI, said: “Nurturing entrepreneurial talent by helping ideas, innovations and dreams take flight has been a central tenet of DIDI’s ethos since we opened our doors three years ago. Design matters more than ever with a growing demand for highly skilled people that can combine critical thinking, creativity, problem solving and empathy. We want to provide opportunities for young people so they can realise their aspirations, and through these scholarships, we hope to support a new generation of talent and future-proof our most precious resource: youth.”
With demand surging for design talent, DIDI has witnessed significant learning growth over the last three years. Student projects have been selected as part of the Global Grad Show, while other students have gained exposure from collaborations with professional design firms and Expo 2020 Dubai.
Today, students study at DIDI and learn from a faculty that boasts world-class academics from prestigious universities such as Harvard and award-winning designers from all four corners of the globe. The university’s human-centric approach to technology and design has attracted talent from India, Pakistan, Cuba, China, South Africa, Russia and the US, with UAE and GCC nationals accounting for 30 per cent of DIDI student body.