Emerging Trends in Design Management Education in the UK

Abstract

This paper discusses emerging practices in Design Management Education in the UK in an attempt to identify some possible future directions. It will explore emerging needs, followed by how Design Management courses in the UK current respond to new demands, and, finally, discuss potential directions where Design Management Education in the UK may be heading towards. In the UK, the role of design has become increasingly strategic and proactive. For example, the Cox Review commissioned by HM Treasury (2005)1 acknowledged design as crucial to the long-term economic success of the UK, since it contributed to key economic aspects, such as innovation, manufacturing and business development. More than a decade ago, Design Council, UK, set its mission to “improve prosperity and well-being in the UK, be inspiring and enabling the best use of design” and its main goal is “making UK managers the best users of design in the world” (Design Council, 2005)2. Moreover, the emphasis in design education and design practices has shifted from delivering ‘tangible’ results to providing ‘strategic’ solutions. Sanders and Stappers (2008)3 observed that design disciplines traditionally concentrated on the designing of ‘tangible outputs’ (such as products, interior spaces and information). Nowadays, emerging design disciplines focus on designing for purposes (such as experience, emotion, sustainability and interaction). This shift opens up new opportunities for design disciplines, and creates new requirements for design education. Nowadays, there are more than 30 Design Management courses in the UK. While only a handful of which uses ‘Design Management’ as their titles, other programs chose titles that show relationships between (strategic) design and other related areas (such as Branding, Leadership, Innovation, Enterprise, Entrepreneurship and the Creative Industries). The global interests in Design Management Education are evident in the rise of Design Management courses that include strategic design subjects (e.g. design thinking) across the world including the BRIC countries. A number of dual degrees/joint courses in the field of Design Management and related subjects between UK and overseas institutes have also been increased in the past decade. This situation might be because universities placed their emphasis on multidisciplinary courses as well as an increase of interests of students in exposing themselves to a diverse field of studies (Green et al, 2004)4.