Discovery:
Enhancing Enterprise in Design Major Projects
Enhance current and future final year undergraduate design students’ skills knowledge and understanding of enterprise factors within their major projects.
With backing from HEEG (Higher Education Entrepreneurship Group) and in collaboration with Brunel and Kingston Universities, Designplus has led a year long project exploring how to enhance the considerable asset represented within an annual 18,000 design major projects – the culmination of most undergraduate design courses in the UK. There is a national imperative to re-evaluate higher education and more effectively harness the outcomes to improving the national economy. The creative industries and design are globally recognised as one of the UK’s main sectors of distinction. High profile examples of this success include Jonathan Ive’s (Apple’s Head of Design) contributions to the success of Apple, and James Dyson’s vacuum cleaner empire. This success all starts with UK design education, but with no scope for complacency.
The year’s activity has included the involvement of over 400 people and 40 businesses, including representatives from; M&S, P&G, Bosch, Nokia, Inter Continental Hotels and leading design consultancies amongst others. Our overall goal has simply been to: Enhance current and future final year undergraduate design students’ skills knowledge and understanding of enterprise factors within their major projects. But an important outcome is our report, which as well as summarising the activities, provides information on the development of a number of new teaching and communication tools which can continue to enhance design education.
We welcome feedback on any aspects of the work and opportunities to disseminate the results more broadly. You can download the report by clicking on the link below. Join our Enhancing Entrepreneurship linked-in group, or contact us directly.
Download full report