The Bachelor of Design (Honours) is an advanced one-year design degree offered to students wishing to deepen and extend their knowledge from their undergraduate design studies. Students graduate with skills and expertise that are in demand from creative industries, the business sector and society. These include strong disciplinary abilities in their field that prepares graduates for high levels of creative and critical practice, as well as qualifying for postgraduate degrees, scholarships and awards. Graduates are also sought-after for their capabilities in design research,project management, communication and design advocacy.

Honours students identify and lead a major design project throughout the whole academic year. This is situated in the relevant design studio for fashion and textiles, product design or visual communication (including photography). Throughout this time, honours students apply and consolidate their undergraduate design skills, experiment with new techniques, and establish a unique design style to take into their career.

All students are guided to develop advanced theoretical knowledge of their design area and document their process and findings in an academic research paper or dissertation. This qualifies graduates to enter into further PhD and postgraduate training, while also establishing critical reflection and writing skills that are highly valued by industry.

Students are supported to realise and communicate their design project to its highest potential by a range of design experts. This includes respected academic and technical experts from the UTS School of Design as well as leading industry mentors. The design domains supported within the Bachelor of Design (Honours) include fashion and textile design, product design, visual communication, photography, motion graphics, AI and AR, social design, service design and strategic design.

The Design Honours degree is an immersive, in-person experience. Classes are run on campus two-days a week through a mix of workshops, lectures, and one-on-one mentoring. Students work primarily within their disciplinary peers in the Design Studio subjects and have opportunities to network with peers across the design disciplines in the Design Research and Design Advocacy subjects. Students have access to dedicated studio spaces and state-of-the-art equipment and production facilities.