School of Design of Hunan University (HNU Design) is one of the earliest design and artistic disciplines in China which was established in 1982. In 1993, HNU Design win the first prize in National Teaching Award, and in the same year was qualified to confer Master's Degree of Art in the first batch, in 2005 obtained the doctorate conferring authority of the second-class discipline of “Art of Design", in 2009 obtained the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree-granting, in 2011 obtained the doctorate and master's degrees conferring authority of first-class discipline of “Design”. HNU Design is director unit of the National College of Industrial Design Teaching Steering Committee, had excellent teaching conditions and take a leading position in the professional in the country.
The Institute attaches great importance to international exchanges. In 2006 HNU join the international design art college alliance, and established close cooperation relations with Politecnico di Milano, Università degli studi di Roma La Sapienza, Turin Polytechnic University, design institute of Chiba University, Practice university school of design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design as well as Nokia, Motorola, Microsoft, Sony, Intel, Giugiaro design companies and other multinational companies. In October 2006, HNU School of Design was nominated as one of the world's top 60 design schools by the “Business Week”.In November 2007, industrial design subjects was firstly named characteristics of professional subjects in the state-level, in 2008, Art and Design Experiment Teaching Center was named a National Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center, In 2009, become the state-level Art and design Personnel training base, in 2011, established the China-Italy Design and Innovation Centre(Hunan).