Academic structure
Departments
Academy is organised into six departments. Each sets its own standard for what counts as rigour, and each is responsible for the courses it publishes.
Design
Form, judgement and craft.
5
Courses
3
Faculty
73
Lessons
The Design department studies how considered decisions become visible. Courses move from typographic fundamentals through interface systems to the harder discipline of editing work down to what it actually needs.
Focus
- Typography
- Interface systems
- Visual editing
- Design critique
Faculty
- Ilse Varga
- Yuki Mori
- Rafael Otero
Featured courses
- Modern Product DesignIntermediate · 7 h
- Typographic SystemsIntermediate · 5.4 h
- Accessible InterfacesIntermediate · 5 h
Technology
Systems that hold up under pressure.
3
Courses
2
Faculty
44
Lessons
Technology at Academy is taught as an engineering practice rather than a tool tour. Students read real architectures, reason about failure, and learn to defend the trade-offs behind the code they ship.
Focus
- Architecture
- Interface engineering
- Data modelling
- Reliability
Faculty
- Tomas Ekelund
- Amara Diallo
Featured courses
All Technology coursesBusiness
Strategy with its arithmetic attached.
3
Courses
1
Faculty
34
Lessons
A department for people who must both persuade a room and reconcile a spreadsheet. Courses cover positioning, pricing, operating rhythm and the numeric literacy that keeps strategy honest.
Focus
- Positioning
- Pricing
- Operating rhythm
- Commercial literacy
Faculty
- Nadia Rahman
Featured courses
All Business coursesHumanities
Language as an instrument of thought.
2
Courses
2
Faculty
25
Lessons
Writing, argument and interpretation. The Humanities department treats prose as the place where thinking is finished rather than merely reported, and teaches editing as the central act.
Focus
- Prose
- Argument
- Editing
- Narrative structure
Faculty
- Colm Bradaigh
- Beatrix Lund
Featured courses
All Humanities coursesCreative Practice
Sustained making, not occasional inspiration.
2
Courses
2
Faculty
23
Lessons
A department concerned with the working habits of practitioners: how a body of work accumulates, how taste is trained, and how a studio practice survives contact with deadlines.
Focus
- Studio habits
- Portfolio
- Taste
- Creative direction
Faculty
- Margit Sole
- Peter Ashworth
Featured courses
All Creative Practice coursesResearch
Evidence before conviction.
2
Courses
2
Faculty
22
Lessons
Methods for finding out what is true. The Research department covers interview craft, quantitative reasoning, synthesis and the discipline of reporting findings that survive scrutiny.
Focus
- Interviewing
- Synthesis
- Quantitative reasoning
- Reporting
Faculty
- Farid Haddad
- Hanne Vos