Founded in 1961, ELISAVA was the first Design School opened in Spain, and the first to teach specific design courses. As the first of its kind in the country, the methodological guidelines it has established have been adopted by other schools as a model for their own.

The School was founded thanks to the endeavour of a group of cultural professionals and intellectuals, theorists, architects and designers concerned with teaching design and committed to social and cultural modernisation, who defined a programme noted for its combination of academic rigour and the exercise of the profession.

ELISAVA is a School affiliated with the University of Pompeu Fabra, which offers official Bachelor’s Degrees in Design, Building Engineering, and Industrial Design Engineering, established by the new European Higher Education Area. It also teaches professionalising Master’s and Postgraduate programmes, and the Master’s Degree in Design and Communication, the first official Master’s Degree in Design in Spain. Its offering is further supplemented with a wide range of specialised design courses for professional and companies. All these learning routes are the result of new emerging careers, and benefit from the quality and creative personality that have given the School such prestige over the years.

At the School there are over 2,200 students and 870 lecturers and collaborators with extensive teaching experience and a solid professional background. ELISAVA also attracts renowned professionals year after year who wish to devote some of their time to being involved in the School’s activity and in training students by holding lectures, seminars, exhibitions and workshops.