Does sponsored studio teaching undermine or facilitate the growth of the design profession?

Year: 2009
Editor: Clarke, A, Ion, W, McMahon, C and Hogarth, P
Author: Liem, Andre
Section: NEW PEDAGOGY
Page(s): 269-274

Abstract

Changing technologies, attitudes and perceptions within industry and society has continuously stimulated and challenged the design profession. For some actors and organisations in the design field, these changes are being perceived as threatening rather than challenging. This has implications on how present and future industrial design education should be reformulated. Many round table discussions among practicing designers, academics and industry have taken place to determine the scope of industrial design education. The on-going discussion is whether design schools should be emphasising on simply form giving, drawing and model making, or should more value be placed on the design process of inquiry based and conscious problem solving. Considering the direction of conscious problem solving, which is most relevant for design programs within a University system, design education quickly spreads to other disciplines, in particular marketing, management and to a certain extent the social sciences. The implication of such a spread is that design education has become more market and businessoriented. Inevitably, this has lead to collaborative studio teaching, where companies are willing to contribute in some form of sponsorship. In many free-market economies, for example the US, sponsorship from industry to facilitate research, design, development and teaching in higher design education are a prerequisite for collaborative projects. Even though the amount of the sponsorship can be below market value, it is usually not perceived by industry as unfair business practice. However in regulated European markets, such as Norway, business practices and the protection of "professions" is a topic of debate. Therefore, the term "sponsorship" and its strings attached should be carefully investigated and reinterpreted within the concept of sponsored studio teaching. This paper discusses how to adopt responsible sponsored studio teaching as common practice in design education as well as to avoid criticism in a society, such as Norway, where professional organisations and unions are strongly represented. On the contrary, positive developments for the growth of the design profession derived from educational collaborative projects will be illustrated. Topics, such as type and nature of projects, level and coverage of sponsorship, learning experiences and deliverables of the project are to be presented in more detail.

Keywords: Sponsored Studio Teaching, Business Practice, Design Profession, Industrial Collaboration

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