​The Diploma in Interior Design is a unique three-year diploma offered only at TUT that will develop graduates to apply design principles to the professional planning, designing, equipping and furnishing of residential, retail and commercial interior spaces. Qualifying students will gain knowledge about computer-aided design, graphic techniques, the principles of interior lighting, acoustics, systems integration and colour coordination, and the history of interior design and period styles.​

Course content also includes training in furniture design, technical working drawings/drafting, structural design, and building code and inspection regulation for commercial and residential design. You will enter the local market at interior design companies as part of the Work Integrated Learning programme. With the correct focus, you can become an entrepreneur as a small business owner or freelance designer, consultant, drafter or renderer.

Qualifying as an interior designer is different from qualifying as an interior decorator. A qualified interior designer can work directly with a client or within a company to develop small building projects, and small-to-large-scale interior space planning, fitting, and fixtures. An interior designer must be able to apply themselves creatively and technically and have a problem-solving mentality as they work from concept to construction, resolving aesthetic design and technical issues of material application and building services integration. An interior designer uses the principles of design to create environments of beauty and function, working with space, light, material, ventilation, and acoustics to meet the goals of the design brief.