The teaching of design in universities has been consolidated through the relationship between teaching and research, as well as in its academic dimension. Against the backdrop of the recent reform of the university system, with its new technical-political reorganization characteristics, there is an opportunity to take stock and critically interpret the last 20 years with the aim of historicizing theories, methods, and results of national education. The goal is not to collect data or formulate tables to initiate quantitative comparisons between different institutions on the concept of educational product, but rather to attempt a sort of historicization of education to evaluate its effects on the disciplinary and cultural definition of design in Italy, on the consistency of the field, on the teaching apparatus, on the directions of research, on the student body, also considering its impact on the job market and professional connections. What role can the university play in an era, like the one we are living in, where design is described as an open mass profession, practiced and influenced by the most diverse skills?
