The Multi-disciplinary Design Network was formed in 2006 to support the implementation of the Cox Review which recommended the establishment of Centres of Excellence, 'that specialise in multi-disciplinary programmes encompassing both postgraduate teaching and research.’
We need business people who understand creativity, who know when and how to use the specialist, and who can manage innovation; creative specialists who understand the environment in which their talents will be used and who can talk the same language as their clients and business colleagues; and engineers and technologists who understand the design process and can talk the language of the business.’ Sir George Cox, The Cox Review of Creativity in Business
The focus of these Cox Centres would be on Masters level programmes which would ‘bring together the different elements of creativity, technology and business’, enabling students from different backgrounds and with varying levels of industrial experience to work together.
The outcome, said Cox, would be: ‘executives who better understand how to exploit creativity and manage innovation, creative specialists better able to apply their skills (and manage creative businesses) and more engineers and scientists destined for the boardroom.’
A number of universities across the UK heeded this call to arms, developing courses and research projects where design works alongside and in collaboration with other disciplines. In some cases this led to the formation of new teaching and research centres, while in others the focus has been on creating new postgraduate courses or embedding design within existing ones.
We've interviewed five of them, each of which has taken a slightly different approach to multi-disciplinary design education. These case studies show that multi-disciplinary design teaching and research in universities can take a number of forms:
- Design London builds on a heritage of cross-institutional collaboration to provide design-led modules for MBA students, designers and engineers, with a focus on business incubation
- C4D shows how a course can run in tandem across two institutions, and how multi-disciplinary workshops can develop research and teaching
- Nottingham University Business School is embedding design thinking in entrepreneurship education
- Northumbria University is developing multi-disciplinary curriculum and assessment design
- Kingston University is researching multi-disciplinary teamwork
These case studies are one part of a wider range of activities undertaken by the Multi-disciplinary Design Network, which was set up in 2006 to support a key recommendation made by the Cox Review for the establishment of multi-disciplinary ‘centres of excellence’ that combine management, engineering, technology, design and the creative arts.
The Network is supported by HEFCE and NESTA and aims to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and best practice across universities to improve curriculum design and assess the impact of these new programmes.