Design Council, working with HEFCE
Business and creative disciplines need to be brought closer together in education for the UK to have a competitive economy driven by innovation.
If the UK is going to have a competitive economy driven by innovation, business and creative disciplines need to be brought closer together. And the place to do that is early, within the education system.
That way, tomorrow’s companies will be run by managers who understand creativity and creative specialists who understand the business environment.
But what would that kind of education look like?
In the Cox Review, Design Council chairman Sir George Cox proposed a number of ways in which higher education could play a bigger role in ensuring that designers, entrepreneurs and business leaders speak the same language.
- Universities and small businesses should work together more closely.
- Higher education courses should better prepare students to work with and understand other specialists.
- Centres of excellence should be established, where multi-disciplinary courses combining management studies, engineering and technology and the creative arts are taught.
Investigating how ‘centres of excellence’ might work in practice. In September 2006, a party of senior academics, officials and policy makers visited the US to investigate how multi-disciplinary education and practice work there. Are there lessons we can learn from designers and businesses in America?
The first centre of excellence, Design-London, was announced in June 2007. This world-class £5.8 million multidisciplinary centre, a partnership between the Royal College of Art (RCA) and Imperial College London, will connect the ‘innovation triangle’ of design, technology and business.
Smaller companies need to do more to work with universities. Only 14 per cent of students gain places on graduate training schemes with blue chip companies – which means most people leaving higher education will find work with small and medium sized companies. Universities need to forge closer links with local companies, and business organisations should do more to encourage those links.
Students need to be encouraged to be more than just subject specialists. The UK education system, which encourages specialisation at an early age, needs to make sure that every student, whatever their main subject, has an understanding of how a company works and how their skills could fit into a business. So higher education institutions need to find good examples of forward-thinking courses and initiatives.
We'd like to hear your views. You can add your comments – and read others’ views – on our Perspectives page.
