Exploring the “Four Collaborations and Four Integrations” Collaborative Cultivation Model for the Design Majors Driven by the Demands of the Digital Design Industry

Abstract

With the development of China’s digital economy and the accelerating intelligent transformation of the design sector, design education faces great pressure to restructure its talent development systems. Local universities, in particular, struggle with curricula that lag industry practice, shallow university–enterprise partnerships, and assessment methods that bear little relation to professional standards. Drawing on theories of industry — education integration, constructivism, and design thinking, this study proposes a “Four Collaborations and Four Integrations” model. The collaborative dimensions (co‑construction, co‑management, co‑creation, and co‑evaluation) establish a governance framework, while the integrative dimension merges curricula with industry capabilities, faculty expertise with professional practice, teaching spaces with production platforms, and academic evaluation with industry benchmarks. The model starts from a dynamic mapping of regional digital design competency needs. It introduces agile pedagogies such as project‑based flipped classrooms (PBL 2.0) with live industry briefs and design sprints and builds a hybrid practice environment combining on‑campus digital workshops with enterprise project sites. A multi‑component value‑added assessment system (drawing on portfolios, process logs, employer feedback, and competition results) completes the loop. A two‑year action research cycle in the institution indicates that the model has improved students’ integrated professional readiness, strengthened faculty members’ dual‑qualified profiles, and deepened the discipline’s regional embeddedness. The findings offer a workable, adaptable blueprint for reform in applied design education, with both theoretical relevance and practical transferability.