mission statement

ELISAVA strongly promotes education, knowledge, research, development and innovation in the fields of Design, Engineering and Communications, giving university level training to prepare its students to achieve their professional goals at international level, boosting the relation of our community with the business world, institutions and society, and watching over our feasibility to transform and grow in an ever changing global scene to make a real impact 

international role

 ELISAVA has established agreements with over 60 centres in Europe, the United States and Latin America, and it participates in several exchange, cooperation and research programmes with foreign academic institutions. Experience enables us to confirm that there is a two-fold benefit: it encourages the circulation of knowledge, and it improves the disciplines taught at the school. ELISAVA’s international outlook is based on various associations and programmes. The school forms part of the Cumulus Network, which groups together over 100 renowned institutions worldwide to promote international cooperation. It is also a member of the International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience (IAESTE). ELISAVA collaborates with the Government of Catalunya and the City Council  and a network of international student exchange programmes. It also participates in the Lifelong Learning Programme / Erasmus, promoted by the European Union to make Europe more accessible to students, and vice versa. Besides participating in LLP and Erasmus, ELISAVA has signed its own bilateral agreements which allow the school to increase its offering beyond the European framework. We're Desis Network Member (www.desisnetwork.org) and partners of Open Design Festival Capetown, Victoria and Albert Museum Digital Design Weekend, Government of Catalunya, Municipality of Barcelona, Barcelona Activa, Fablabs, Maker Districts, CCCB Centre Cultura Contemporanea Barcelona, Neighobour Councils, Students Associations, European Networks of Living Labs.

national role

Founded in 1961, ELISAVA is the first School of Design open in Spain, which name is for the first catalan artist woman  thus becoming the first to offer a design curriculum for man and woman. As a pioneer, it has set the methodological guidelines that have served as a starting point for other schools in the Region.ELISAVA’s role has been piooner to shaping the culture of Design in Catalonia and Spain and now worldwide with the specific Mediterranean culture cluster of identity. We coincieve the role of designer as change agents and as a committed profile toward transformative education in the society. Fifty years with a multi-disciplinary academic and action-research approach, strongly geared to the professional world and promoting close collaboration with the social responsive of companies, institutions and universities around the world. to help in the transition to a better society of change agents.

main focus

Design and Engineering programmes