The Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design and Swinburne University of Technology Faculty of Design jointly organize a conference on the challenges and opportunities of doctoral education that will take place in Hong Kong at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

It is nearly a decade since the last comprehensive global conference on doctoral education in design in La Clusaz, France, and it's time to revisit this issue for a conversation on this vital theme in design education.

We'll start the dialog with a dinner on Sunday for three full days of intense discussion, studios, and workshops with limited community of 120 participants.  Papers will be selected from extended abstracts with references.  We will enter into a rich dialog in a single track plenary sessions.  Tuesday's plenary will be followed by a day of design studios in which participants address key problems and challenges, designing solutions and outcomes for the future.

Papers will be delivered to participants in a proceedings document two weeks before the conference to give everyone time to prepare. The real conference publication will come afterward. Authors will be asked for a commitment to deliver a book chapter within 90 days of their return home from the conference. This book will allow people to expand and improve their papers with new insights and ideas based on the conference conversation.

Studios will create process documents and solutions for publication in working paper format.

The book and the working papers will stimulate new thinking to help our colleagues around the world to set new standards for our field.