This paper presents a formalized design methodology for an organizational unit that cultivates digital consciousness among university students and reports results from a pilot implementation. Using the Metacompetence Development Centre (MDC) as an exemplar, we show how three complementary functional sectors (digital, socio-communicative, and cognitive) are coordinated by an integrative block. Together they systematically grow key metacompetencies whose synergy crystallises into digital consciousness. The framework embeds perspectives from metacognition, digital literacy and team-based learning into a structured scheme of curricular and co-curricular activities, assessment rubrics and feedback loops. A mixed-method pilot involving 128 undergraduates employed pre-post digital-literacy quizzes, a critical-thinking rubric, and a peer-rated teamwork checklist that operationalize the criteria specified in the MDC model. After one semester, students demonstrated statistically meaningful gains in information evaluation, adaptive online collaboration and self-regulated learning habits; qualitative reflections indicated heightened awareness of ethical and socio-technical implications of AI-driven systems. The methodology, requiring only modest staffing and infrastructure, is transferable to universities seeking holistic digital-consciousness development and scalable across diverse institutional contexts. Details of the methodology and instruments are provided in Sect. 2, pilot outcomes in Sect. 3, discussion in Sect. 4, and conclusions in Sect. 5.