Designing Our Future: A Report on Tertiary Design Education in Victoria

A new research report, Designing Our Future: A Report on Tertiary Design Education in Victoria, launched on 12 November 2009 at the Cumulus International Design Conference, looks at tertiary design education in Victoria to ensure the finest design graduates for the industry are being developed.

In 2008, Design Victoria commissioned Wallis Consulting Group to research and build a bank of knowledge on Victoria's design sector. The findings, launched in December 2008 in the publication Five Years On, painted a picture of a thriving and competitive design industry. From this research, knowledge gaps were identified and subsequently the Victorian Government through RMIT University's Design Victoria unit, commissioned Wallis Consulting Group to undertake research into the tertiary design education sector.

The findings, captured in Designing Our Future, offer valuable insight for government, the education sector and the design industry in the ongoing process of tailoring training and education of Victoria's design students:

- Victoria's tertiary design education sector has continued to grow strongly over the past five years.
- Despite this growth, the report identifies a range of deterrents to entering tertiary design education, from course selection during VCE to a lack of understanding of what a career in design entails.
- Students indicated a high level of satisfaction with course content and teaching, however Victoria's design education falls short of the criteria that define the leading design schools around the world.
- There is scope for improvement including increased opportunities for workplace experience, and greater interdisciplinary work between design and other faculties, particularly with business and commerce.



The full report can be downloaded at designvic.com/knowledge/publications/designingourfuture.aspx

Designing Our Future updates the dandolo partners research on the sector undertaken in 2003. It provides an opportunity for discussion around teaching practices, course planning and interdisciplinary learning.

Speaking at the launch Michele Azzopardi, Director, Design Victoria, emphasised the importance of world class design education and training. "Victoria's design industry is currently thriving but we need to ensure that we are developing the next generation of design graduates who can maintain the momentum and advance and renew the sector in the future," said Ms Azzopardi.

Tertiary design education is delivered in Victoria through nine universities, 17 TAFE schools and 11 private colleges. "Within this framework a spectrum of design education and training is offered from one year private courses to Masters Degrees and postgraduate qualifications," said Dr John Fidler, Director and General Manager, Wallis Consulting Group. "This study focused on undergraduate education in the areas of industrial design, visual communications design and to a lesser extent, multimedia and other design disciplines. It examined various aspects of design education including whether the current skill set and number of design-qualified graduates meets the needs of Victorian employers, how our design education stacks up against the world's leading design institutions and ways to modify design education to better meet the needs of graduates and employers."

The research drew on a wide range of data sources including published statistics and studies, interviews with design practitioners and design teachers, and surveys of careers teachers and course designers/coordinators in tertiary design, business and engineering schools, and of students studying design, business/commerce and engineering.

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