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Insights into design management education in the UK: Lessons to be learned
By Weronika Rochacka, Project Manager, Design Council; recent graduate, University of the Arts London
The history of design management education in the UK can be traced back to the late 1970s, when Peter Gorb pioneered this area of teaching at the London Business School. Since that time a lot has changed and the discipline has considerably developed, but surprisingly little has been written on the subject of design management education in the UK.
This article is a summary of some of the findings of the research conducted for a Masters thesis at the University of the Arts London, completed in December 2009. Based on a detailed literature review and interviews with 22 design management education specialists, it aimed to provide some insights into design management education in the UK.1 Some of the findings of general interest are outlined below.
Definition(s) of design management and its implications for education
Despite continuous attempts to define design management, there is still a great deal of discussion and debate in the UK around what design management actually is. Some may think this is just an academic debate, but in this particular case it had, and still has, some very practical implications in terms of design management education. As one of my interviewees put it, the combination of the words design and management does design management a “real disservice.” Design schools are not keen on “management,” which is often associated with “control” and “putting things into boxes,” therefore excluding any “breathing space” and creativity. At the same time, some management and business schools are not fully convinced about design, which often is linked to, and understood as, just “making things look pretty.”
This dichotomy was observed back in the early 1990’s.2 A famous UK example of a design management course which didn’t fit within a creative environment, was the course set up in 1989 and led by Naomi Gornick at the Royal College of Art. For various reasons, and mostly due to the senior team’s lack of understanding of the discipline’s complex nature, this course, though initially successful and well received, survived for only two years. A few years later it was revived at Brunel University under the new title, “Design, Strategy & Innovation,” and is now considered one of the best in the country. A more recent example relates to my own college, the London College of Communication. Amid efforts to reposition the college as a “hub of creativity,” running purely creative courses, a decision has been made to close the design management course, despite rising numbers and increasing student satisfaction levels. It seems that, again, the term management did not sit comfortably with the senior team’s vision for a pure hub of creativity.
Silos and territorial approach
Taking these points into consideration, I asked myself: What is the biggest problem that design management education in the UK is facing at the moment? Many of my interviewees pointed out the issue of silos and a territorial approach in higher education, which has a negative impact on such a heterogeneous subject as design management. This can be observed on at least three levels:
Institutions
The academic world often has clearly defined boundaries of expertise and responsibility. Design management, with its hybrid and complex nature, crosses the boundaries and pushes people out of their silos. This also links to another aspect—historical and organizational structures of higher education in the UK, which often predispose people to silos, for example with physical buildings and different departments being situated far from each other.
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Curriculums
The aim of a design management course is undermined when it is separated from other disciplines, in particular design. If they work together, students from different disciplines have an opportunity to practice teamwork, learn about different work cultures and find a common language.
Students
Design management students usually come from either the world of design or management/business. They often need to overcome their preconceptions, get out of their comfort zones and open up to different types of knowledge and thinking. This can be challenging, both for them and for their teachers.
Different flavors of design management
Understanding of design management depends strongly on a wider context, as well as specific individual background. For example a designer may have a slightly different take on it than a business-trained person. There are many different approaches to design management and from analyzing a few of them and speaking to specialists in the area, I’ve come up with a concept of different design management flavors. The word flavor relates to different perspectives and angles from which people might look at design management.
These flavors do not exist in isolation; they constantly permeate each other under an overarching umbrella of design thinking. For example, one way of looking at design management will be from the branding, business and change management perspective, so that it is very much commercially oriented. Researchers or those treating design management more as a science will represent a different perspective while design managers working in service design and public services will take into account more social aspects of the discipline. Design management is constantly changing and broadening its original remit, and this has a strong impact on education. This changing nature of design management as well as its different flavors means that there is no one standard curriculum and it varies by school.
Lessons learned
The UK with its breadth of experience in design management education can be a great example to look at and learn from. With some of the world’s best courses and best practices in design management, it is a mine of information. It is quite important, though, to reflect back and think what has worked so far and what hasn’t and to draw some meaningful conclusions for the future. Here are a few of my recommendations:
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One of the most important lessons coming out of the UK experience in design management education is the need for strong patronage for courses within educational institutions. Without full understanding and support from a senior management team, courses are often discontinued. Any future initiatives should take this point into consideration very carefully.
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Overcoming silos can be achieved through pursuing more multi-disciplinary education. Collaboration between design, business, engineering and science departments creates a new dimension in higher education.3 It enables students to work together across disciplines, giving them more real-life experience and developing more T-shaped professionals (the idea popularized by IDEO).
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Design management is constantly moving into new areas. With the public sector becoming increasingly interesting to design management specialists, developing courses focused on civil servants and their specific needs for design management skills is an area worth exploring.
1 MA thesis title: “How might the UK design management education experience inform the discipline’s development in Poland.”
2 Callway, W. (1990) New Directions in Design Management Education. In Oakley, M. ed., Design Management. A Handbook of Issues and Methods, Oxford: Blackwell Reference, pp. 414-422.
3 Cox, G. (2005) Cox Review of Creativity in Business: Building on UK’s Strengths, commissioned by the Chancellor of Exchequer, London: HM Treasury.
About Weronika Rochacka
Weronika graduated from the Warsaw University with an MA in Art History in 2006. She then moved to Dublin where she spent a year working in one of the biggest Irish construction companies, Michael McNamara. In 2007, she joined the Design Council team and works closely with Lesley Morris on the UK Design Alliance and the Good Design Practice campaign, with projects ranging from schools, through higher education and further education, up to the design industry and continuous professional development (CPD).
In December 2009, Weronika completed another MA degree at the London College of Communication (University of the Arts London) in Enterprise and Management for the Creative Arts. Her final major project was focused on design management education: “How might the UK design management education experience inform the discipline’s development in Poland?” Her work was awarded a distinction.
This article appeared in the May
2010 edition of the DMI News & Views.
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