The proposal to create a degree in Design came from the universities involved in drafting the white paper on Fine Arts, Design and Conservation and Restoration (presented to ANECA on 15 June 2004). The Conference of Deans of the Spanish Fine Arts faculties agreed to propose a degree in Design, in response to this long-standing demand from the Fine Arts faculties, while taking advantage of the opportunity offered by the European convergence process to regularise university studies in Design in Spain.
Royal Decree 1393 of 29 October 2007, amended in 2010, establishes the organisation of official university education and has allowed the degree in Design to become a reality, placing this subject at a level comparable to Europe. Faculties that have been offering Design itineraries or specialisations, such as the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of La Laguna, are given the opportunity to create this degree, not to offer something new, but to give continuity to a training that already existed in their offer and that is now perfectly regulated and recognised.
Furthermore, the existence of undergraduate studies in Design are a necessary prerequisite for the development of postgraduate and doctoral studies. These close the circle of higher education, guaranteeing the incorporation and active participation of design in existing and future R&D&I activities and policies in our country, both at the state and regional level.
The definitive incorporation of design into universities in Europe and the rest of the world is generating a powerful international academic community dedicated to research (theoretical, historical, anthropological, methodological and meta-project-based) and high-level training. This international university community guarantees cooperation and exchanges, the publication of its research, the organization of meeting forums and the genesis of public media where developments are established and the advancement of fundamental research is promoted.
Design studies are now a reality in the Spanish university system, and the demand they are generating must also be met within the public university of the Canary Islands. Recognition of a university degree in Design in the Canary Islands is absolutely necessary, even more so in the current situation and considering the mobility of professionals who, if not, could find themselves in unequal conditions when accessing the international market.
The University of La Laguna has a tradition of teaching design that dates back to the plans of 1979. Since then, many graduates have successfully entered the professional world and today are design directors for newspapers, art directors in advertising agencies, design studios and other companies linked to the graphic arts sector, designers for the tourism sector or art directors in digital post-production companies, film production companies or television studios, to name just a few examples. In the academic field, doctoral theses have been read, research projects signed, collaboration contracts and internship agreements with companies. This is also attested to by the Erasmus agreements signed with centres that offer European degrees in design.
There is much talk about the need to change the socio-economic model of the Canary Islands and the need to promote the knowledge society, encourage innovation and its use in R&D&I, promote new industrial initiatives based on ICT, the audiovisual industry and the application of new development models to the tourism industry. The Faculty of Fine Arts sees this situation as an opportunity to contribute, through the degree in Design, to the development of the Canary Islands.