During their visit here, they listened in on a class of the Speculative & Critical Design designing futures and alternate presents course of the Design MA programme covering the subjects of speculative design, critical design, undesign, system design, world building, and problem prototyping. Next, they had informal discussions with MOME students who launched their own brand or business using the knowledge gained at the University’s new Business to Design course.  

Over their three-day visit, they met the management, members of the faculty, as well as several heads of Institutes, discussing plans for the University of the Future Workshop, the progress of the rector election involving international candidates, the achievements of the various institutes and programmes last year, internationalisation processes, and education in general reflecting László Moholy-Nagy’s intellectual legacy.

Based on their personal experience, they provide specific feedback and advice to the University for effectively improving the new English-language MA programmes, as well as the entire institution. According to them, since their visit last November, there have been significant positive changes in several areas.

Cultural strategist András Szántó, who has been helping with the reorganisation of the university from the start, was invited by the MOME Foundation to lead the board. Szántó is a strategist who has been living in the USA for decades and is credited with reinventing institutions and brands such as Art Basel and the The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, a Stanford University or the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

Other members include Professor Ulrich Weinberg, head of the Hasso-Plattner-Institut in Potsdam, Zuzanna Skalska, co-founder of the School of Form in Warsaw and a truly versatile creative industry entrepreneur, and Aric Chen, professor at the Design and Innovation Department of the Tongji University in Shanghai and Artistic Director of the Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam.

It was important to also have MOME’s alumni community represented in the board, which was undertaken by City Transition Co-Lead at Dark Matter Labs and former Head of Strategic Partnerships at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose Györgyi Gálik. She holds a PhD from the Royal College of Art in Innovation Design Engineering and two Master’s degrees from MOME.