Australian INfront

RE: Design education in Australia, your thoughts? on 26th May 2010 @ 6.44 PM in Talks

Thanks so much for your responses everyone, they've proved most insightful and I've really enjoyed reading them.

Without giving too much away, I work at one of the leading tertiary institutions (providers of art and design education) in Melbourne and so was interested in getting people's thoughts in order to prompt some dialogue between myself and some of our leading academics about some of these issues.

I look forward to touching base again in the future about how things progressed.

RE: Design education in Australia, your thoughts? on 21st May 2010 @ 10.19 AM in Talks

Thanks so much for your contributions so far everyone. The key points resonating from all that has been said above seem to be:

*Students should have greater ability to tackle real-world briefs whilst at Uni/TAFE (love the examples of KISD and Hyper Island in particular - how innovative and inspiring)

*More experimentation should be allowed in the contexts of tertiary design courses - not all content should be so pragmatic

*Practical experience should be introduced at a greater level throughout an individuals design education

*Uni/TAFE is handy but is by no means the be-all and end-all

In regards to Australian institutions, it seems some are really chasing their tail. On the contrary, do you think any universities, TAFE colleges or privately run institutions are doing a particularly good job? If so, what is it that they are doing?

RE: Designing Our Future on 13th January 2010 @ 2.01 PM in Talks

Simon / Michael - thanks for your comments and feedback. I enjoyed reading both your responses.

One of the core themes here seems to be the lack of exposure to real-life occupational environments, and the ability of designers to successfully integrate and strive in a business context. Graduates in particular I have found come in to a new job all gung-ho as to how proficient and talented they are technically, yet seem to lack even the most basic communication or interpersonal skills. In my opinion possessing the ability to relate positively with those whom you work with and for is just as important (if not more so) than being able to deliver a crackerjack creative solution. Hence, on the points you have made, I couldn't agree with you more.

So what do you think could be some tangible ways for us to address this issue? I like the idea of a design degree consisting of a compulsory practical placement year in a studio / business, but this might not be feasible for a variety of reasons - particularly financially and logistics wise (ie: not enough studios to fulfill demand from educational institutions). Do you have any other ideas?