Product Design Innovation MA

Overview

At the heart of the Product Design Innovation course is the belief that students should be capable of effective and productive critical and creative thinking in equal measures. It is not enough to be able to draw well if there is no thinking; it is not enough to think logically if there is no creativity or imagination.

Design is a thinking act and the course educates thinking designers.

In an increasingly technologically complex world in which the interpretation of data and information is as least as important as the capacity for original imaginative ideas, designers are expected to be masters of creativity, communication and collaboration. They must understand the processes of innovation, problem solving and strategic decision making. They must understand how to research, to embrace change, to tolerate uncertainty and unpredictability. They must recognise the role and influence of cultural difference and they must understand the needs of the end-user, manufacturers and of the environment in which we must all live.

Professional experience option
This master's programme provides you with the additional option to apply for a professional experience opportunity during your first semester with us. The professional experience opportunity is designed to further develop your skills and knowledge with the aim of maximising your employability prospects. Please note that the optional professional experience modules incur a maximum additional tuition fee of £4,000. If your placement is in a country other than the UK, visa applications procedures for that country will apply and application must be made from the home country of the applicant.

Career prospects

This course develops your ability to design products with significant engineering or technological content to optimise solutions for specific consumer and professional markets and develop products which delight end users.

It is designed to prepare you for leadership and decision-making positions within product design agencies, manufacturing companies, design consultancies, research and development departments, research institutions and government bodies. Specific careers might include acting as a design team leader, design project manager, design researcher and design policy maker. You may even decide to develop your own business.

Professional enhancement is central to our ethos which is why we encourage collaboration with industry practitioners and work on ‘live’ project briefs. In addition to this, students undertake a compulsory 10-credit module accredited by the Chartered Management Institute which upon successful completion provides them with an internationally recognised certificate of qualification. Upon completion of the final major project the students also take part in a degree show.

Our Talent Team is on hand to offer tailored career and enterprise support if you wish to gain employment or take advantage of professional practice opportunities within course specific industries. It provides specialist careers information, advice and guidance to all our students from their first year through to final year and beyond graduation, helping them achieve their desired career outcome. Our dedicated enterprise officers also offer valuable assistance on how to begin as a freelancer/entrepreneur.

Applicants should normally have an undergraduate degree in design or engineering. Non-design applicants can be accepted on the basis of evidence of a projects or activities that signal a creative, problem-solving ability.