Dear Terry
In answer to your question, ‘Am I missing something in expecting a design
degree to specify the level of skills and knowledge that graduates will
possess?’, I would venture to suggest that yes, I think possibly you are.
The subject benchmark statement covers Art and Design degrees rather than
merely ‘design degrees’. Therefore it has to encompass, for example, all
areas of Fine Art, Illustration, Animation, Fashion Design, Graphic Design,
Textile Design, Ceramics, Film etc, etc. Within this wide range of subjects
there will of course be industrial and product design where art converges
with engineering and the stability of your neighbour’s bobcat comes into
play. But it probably doesn’t need to be the dominant issue in a broader
picture that must be inevitably generic when trying to cover the expressive
and applied arts. I would add that, although you and the bloke driving the
bobcat don’t care what it looks like, (and I would agree that it is not the
primary consideration in its construction), many of us do.
Best regards from Cambridge
Martin
Professor Martin Salisbury
Course Leader, MA Children's Book Illustration
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-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
research in Design on behalf of Terence Love
Sent: Tue 4/26/2011 4:00 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: UK undergraduate design education is school level?
A couple of days ago, Andrew Jackson pointed to the UK Quality Assurance
Benchmark for undergraduate design education in the UK.
http://www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/benchmark/statements/ADHA08.asp
It's an interesting to read it with a critical eye about whether it
specifies the quality of performance of Design graduates.
Some snippets:
1. Undergraduate Art and Design education in the UK is only for
creating *visual culture* (section 3), except it includes products as part
of that visual culture. Weird. For example, the chap down the road will be
using his bobcat (a designed product) to rearrange some house foundations
tomorrow. What matters is that the bobcat is designed so it can safely
move dirt - lots of dirt and very accurately and safely. I'm pretty sure he
(or I) doesn't mind at all what the visual culture affects of the bobcat are
compared to whether it will stay the right way up and move a lot of dirt
very accurately to level. Similarly, I'd expect designers of surgical
equipment to view them in other ways than as part of visual culture
2. As the core of the Quality Assurance, there are broad bush
definitions (sections 4 and 5) of subject-specific knowledge '.ability to
generate ideas.' 'employs convergent and divergent thinking.' etc; and
generic knowledge '..ability to study independently.'. 'formulate a reasoned
response.' etc. Nowhere, however, in the document does it specify any
standards or specific competences or even levels of competence or skills
that can be assessed in terms of whether the person unarguably has got the
skills/knowledge or not;
3. The actual benchmark standards are in section 6. It is this section
that one would expect to accurately define what a graduate is able to do on
successful completion of the program (which would also define what is taught
and how it is assessed). The information in this section, the benchmarks,
are as loose and unspecific as the earlier sections. For example 'presents
evidence of an ability to generate ideas.', 'will be able to use materials.
methods.. associated with the discipline studied and familiar with good
working practices.'
Nowhere in this UK QAA quality assurance benchmark does it indicate the
standard, any standard, or specific level of skill or knowledge to be
expected of a Design graduate.
Mischievously, it's possible to take the words used in this QAA for Art and
Design and ask 'Could a primary school program accord with the wording of
this honours degree Quality Assurance for a UK Design degree?' It might be
possible. Certainly a secondary-school Design course might easily fulfil
this wording for UK Design degree quality assurance.
Contrast the QAA Design degree spec with, for example, a specification of
what is expected of a Human Centred Design professional as described in ISO
134087
(http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/upa_projects/body_of_knowledge/certif
ication_project/files/competence_v0.7.doc )
Am I missing something in expecting a design degree to specify the level of
skills and knowledge that graduates will possess? Without it, it seems that
there is no real basis for a claim for professional standards in Design. Is
the UK's Art and Design university education really essentially only
interested in designing everything in terms of visual culture? If so, where
is the UK Design education program that teaches people to design things
that work?
Best wishes,
Terry
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