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In the wake of László Moholy-Nagy’s slogan of “Design for Life” (1947), design has been taught with the ambition of giving form to the construction of a contemporary, cooperative, and shared way of thinking, linked to life in society, an aspiration that echoes the project of a university in touch with the times. What, then, could be the singularity of design education in universities, based on the study of the French case? What do universities, considered as sites for the circulation of knowledge, offer to design education? More precisely, what pedagogical and epistemological orientation can inform the teaching of design research in the framework of master’s theses? Directly connected with pressing contemporary issues and questions of representations, this type of proposal, associated with the Anglo-American postures of design studies and cultural studies, can help to re-politicize the subjects of design research. The purpose of this article is to discuss the possible links between theory and practice, and between form and discourse, and finally, to reinstate the figure of the university-educated designer-researcher.