Northumbria University offers a Masters in Multi-disciplinary Design Innovation, run by the School of Design in collaboration with Newcastle Business School and the School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences. Launched in September 2008, the degree can be awarded as an MA or an MSc depending on the focus of the final semester’s work.
Multi-disciplinary teaching and learning
Before establishing the Masters course, Northumbria received a grant of £70,000 from HEFCE in 2007 to undertake a pilot study to assess the feasibility of multi-disciplinary approaches within the university, under the banner of the Northumbria University Design Innovation Lab.
During the pilot study, staff from the School of Design, the Business School and the School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences observed design, business and technology students undertaking multi-disciplinary, team-based projects set by industry partners which included Philips, Hasbro, Lego and Unilever. Their aim was to identify the best ways to support individual and peer learning while encouraging innovation to flourish.
Students on the MA/MSc Multi-disciplinary Design Innovation working on mixed discipline projects for industry clients
Insights included recognition that students needed confidence to express themselves and their disciplinary expertise, and particularly to question that of their team colleagues, and an awareness of the potential for misunderstandings to arise from different disciplines’ different uses of terminology. Observation of teams also enabled staff to compare the students’ tolerance for ambiguity – they found that while design students were comfortable with ambiguity and would only commit to a purpose when time pressure dictated it, business students were uncomfortable with ambiguity and preferred a systematic approach to innovation. Students with a technology background, meanwhile, were more comfortable with an ambiguous approach but needed to wrap this in an analytical process that grounded experimentation.10
The insights uncovered by this process enabled staff to plan and refine a programme structure for the MA/MSc Multi-disciplinary Design Innovation. The cohort of students work in mixed discipline groups in a neutral space, separate from the School of Design, Business School and the School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences. The interconnectingrooms include studio and workshop style areas for brainstorming and prototyping as well as more formal lecture rooms. The space includes elements developed to enable students to share information in order to help them collaborate more easily, such as the ‘Wall of Words’ where students write phrases they hear which are new to them, so that members of the group from other disciplines can help to explain unfamiliar terms and concepts. To help develop students’ confidence, the programme includes a core module on ‘Understanding the Inter-disciplinary Self’, which spans two semesters and allows students to relate their project-based experiences to a theoretical framework in order to understand where they fit in and how they can contribute to the multi-disciplinary team.
Working in collaborative groups tests us on many levels. The experience of decision making, leadership, and idea/ego management within group activities is essential. Edward Blazey, Multi-disciplinary Design Innovation student
Using the MA/MSc Multi-disciplinary Design Innovation as a working prototype, staff have also developed a different model of assessment to enable students to learn from failure as well a success. The first two semesters of the three semester course are pass/fail rather than graded; assessment is based not on project outcomes, but on the learning each student has derived from derived from the various project and team activities undertaken through the module. This is presented in a ‘Personal Portfolio of Practice’ as both a factual account of what took place and a personal reflection of the consequent learning.
Because the proposed multi-disciplinary course did not bring together two different institutions it was not eligible for further grants from the HEFCE Strategic Development Fund after the initial pilot project funding. Instead, 18 studentships in the course’s first year were sponsored by North East Studentships (NESt), bursaries funded by ONE North East, the North East Regional Development Agency. Students undertake projects with live industry clients, and as well as working with SMEs from the North East region, work with international blue-chip organisations, public sector bodies and charities. Recent projects have involved students developing products and services to briefs set by Unilever, the BBC, Barnados, the MS Society and the Traffic Penalty Tribunal at the Department of Transport.
Research
The NESt funding is also sponsoring a doctoral candidate at NuDIL who is researching invisible design and innovation practices within SMEs. In addition, the course development team continue to investigate and assess pedagogical approaches to teaching multi-disciplinary teams.
Multi-disciplinary Master’s students at Northumbria University work in a neutral space which includes studio and workshop style areas for brainstorming and areas designed to enable students to share information in order to help them collaborate more easily.
http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/our-work/investment/multi-disciplinary-design-network/northumbria/