Covering the business of education and training

More and more it is not just a question of can a product do the job, but can it look good while it does it. Ask iPod.

It's not enough to consider market size, now its also about market appeal.

These days B-schools and E-schools are calling in students from D-schools (Design) to get the design students' input on products still in the engineering phase or on products that aren't selling the way they should.

Europe has always had influence on design and art. Asia produced the machine heads and programmers. Not any more. In a special report, Businessweek announced what it thinks are the 10 best D-schools in Asia.

Here they are by country:

Korea

1. Hongik University School of Design - Seoul

2. Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) - Daejon

China/Hong Kong

1. Hong Kong Polytechnic

2. Hunan University of School Design - Changsha

3. Tongji University School of Design - Shanghai

4. Tsinghua University Academy of Arts & Design - Beijing

India

1. Indian Institute of Technology Industrial Design Center - Bombay

2. National Institute of Design - Ahmedabad

Japan

1. Kyoto Institute of Technology - Kyoto

2. Tama Art University - Tokyo

Perhaps it was because Asia had to play catch up for so long that they (Asians) did not have time or were not permitted to show their creative sides.

But, they have time now, from Korea to India to China to Japan.

These schools help their countries put the spark on the products they are producing.

What do you think?