Don’s thread on ‘Design Education: Brilliance without Substance’ claimed that there were weaknesses in (industrial) design education and that there was a need for change. My response indicated my disagreement with almost all of his concerns and solution. However, as the discussion moved on to the increasing requirement for design academics/educators to have PhDs, I was reminded of a presentation I was invited to give at the Education Symposium of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) in September of this year. In discussing the status of industrial design education in the UK/Europe, I identified a key strength as being the significance and centrality of the PhD in its capacity to contribute new knowledge to the discipline. I also identified a key weakness as being an increasing requirement for new lecturers to have PhDs as opposed to evidence of substantial capability as a practitioner.
In returning to Don’s thread about his view on the need for design education to change, it may be necessary to reflect on the validity of the PhD for those academics/educators at the sharp end of industrial design education i.e. those who have to teach the core skills and knowledge of practice such as visualising; CAD; form-giving; interface design; mock-up/prototyping; manufacturing. This may, of course, also apply to other design disciplines. I have reasonable experience of industrial design education in the USA where ‘new hires’ must excel in professional practice and where many senior members of faculty continue to run their own consulting firms. I have a high degree of confidence that this approach serves undergraduate and masters students extremely well.
If I was to set up a new design school, my priority would be to recruit a team of highly capable practitioners to teach core skills. I would want them to have undergraduate/masters degrees and stunning portfolios that include work from a wide variety of commercial projects. It may also be necessary to recruit specialists to subjects such as ergonomics and design history. With relatively large undergraduate/masters programme in place, I would then want to have a team of academic researchers (probably with PhDs) who would engage in cutting-edge design research.
The threat that I alluded to in my presentation to the IDSA and subject line of this thread is that an increasing requirement for new staff to have a PhD may be impeding the capacity of institutions to deliver undergraduate/masters design education of the highest standard.
Mark
Dr Mark Evans
Loughborough Design School
Loughborough University
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