Bachelor of Design

Choose your major early and stick with a flexible shell around it. That's the practical shape of QUT's Bachelor of Design. Incoming students pick one of five majors (architectural studies, fashion, industrial design, interaction design or visual communication design, with a strategic design major due to launch for 2027 entry), then build out minors or specialisation units around it rather than sampling broadly before committing.

QUT's design programs run out of the Kelvin Grove creative industries precinct, and the course leans into studio-based, critique-driven teaching rather than a lecture-heavy model, so expect a lot of in-progress work pinned up and picked apart by staff and peers. The interaction design major in particular has been a strong QUT drawcard given Brisbane's growing tech and games sector, though QUT has flagged it's being phased into an Experience Design major from 2027, so students entering under the old name should confirm with QUT which version their course code maps to.

What makes the degree distinctive against other design schools is the ease of pairing it with a second QUT degree. Architectural studies students, for instance, commonly combine with engineering, since QUT explicitly markets several design/engineering and design/business double-degree pathways.