ABSTRACT
This paper is part of a PhD research focused on product design curricula’s adequacy to business challenges, which aims to stress the need to intensify the knowledge transfer processes between the teaching and the professional worlds. It presents a critical overview about the changing demands on Design Education, facing the Europe 2020 strategy’s implementation. The adoption of a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth approach on education, highlights a new culture for innovation and competitiveness. This leads to fundamental questions on which we must reflect: is the product design education currently structured and prepared to follow up the European demands? How does the knowledge transfer occurs?
