Industry and Higher Education

This paper discusses an e-learning pilot study focusing on local tourist producers and businesses involved in the production of artefacts, mainly textiles. The project included research into the possibilities of incorporating the strengths of local cultural heritage as a vital starting point for design creativity, innovation, production and education. A special educational module was developed, employing new technology, and was applied experimentally to selected participating tourist producers, offering them fundamental design education, computer training and basic management and marketing education. The programme was made available via distance learning, thus providing tourist producers and workshops in remote and rural areas with access to training and an opportunity to develop the skills necessary for them to be competitive. Examples are offered from the research work and the adapted teaching programme.

Salford University led and coordinated a thematic network known as C⁵U, which involved a consortium of seven European universities. This was part of a European University Association (EUA)/Socrates programme of work known as ‘Creativity in Higher Education’. The aim was to understand how universities were increasingly seeking to be creative in their relationships with their cities and regions. The consortium identified how universities had contributed to, and benefited from, the creativity of their city-region for socially inclusive wealth creation. Success occurs when both the university and their partners have a high commitment to working together through creative leadership, and through the implementation of ‘virtuous knowledge sharing’ – a two-way, deep and iterative discussion, rather than the traditional one-way technology transfer typical in university reach-out. As a result of their deliberations, the C⁵U partners have suggested a new model for those engaged universities wishing to embrace their creative city-regions to the full – styled as ‘Universities for Modern Renaissance’. The characteristics of such universities are discussed in some detail in the paper.

A cursory review of academic headlines would suggest that educational institutions can be perceived as formalized, regimented and systematic – intellectual factories that reward those staff and students who conform best to rigid systems which ensure the efficient processing of quantity. Is this the reality? Do prevailing economic and bureaucratic pressures in higher education, at best, stifle creativity or, at worst, actively eradicate creative thought? This paper asks whether there is a place for the successful teaching and development of marketing and entrepreneurial creative skills within the UK educational system, and if so how these newly merging pedagogical areas can be nurtured. The paper explores the interplay between creativity and conformity within a modern university system. It takes as a case study a marketing enterprise module taught within a Department of Design to highlight the issues faced and the outputs achieved. The investigation reviews current thought from the social sciences and management literature relating to creativity, creative marketing, entrepreneurship and creative problem solving.

North American higher education finds itself on the horns of a dilemma. On the one hand, it accepts droves of freshmen who equate learning with rote memorization and who correlate achievement with the ability to pass narrowly focused standardized tests. On the other hand, it is expected to contribute to the country's cultural and economic vibrancy by graduating engaged citizens and creative professionals. After contextualizing its desirability and the support for its efficacy, this paper discusses how one pedagogical technique - the classroom critique - can help higher education to resolve the discrepancy between the improperly prepared student and the excellence a college education is expected to impart. The author suggests that this neo-Socratic method can not only help to correct previous educational deficiencies but can also nurture the civic and creative skills necessary to a democratic society and required by a competitive business community.

Specific training may be required to develop creativity in design students. At the very least, training is valuable in developing creativity in first-year students. Creativity is a skill that can be examined, used and taught - and it is one that is central to designing. This paper presents the results of empirical research from a class in creative problem solving for design students. The nature of creativity and the structure of the class are described, and this is followed by an outline of the research methodology and the use of the verbal Torrance Test of Creative Thinking. Creativity, as measured through the test, significantly increased.

This paper describes the conception and progress to date of the development of work-based learning as part of post-qualifying education in the School of Nursing at the University of Salford. There is a changing culture in the university in relation to the delivery of programmes via non-traditional routes. In this context, work-based learning is a radical change from current teaching and learning strategies in the School of Nursing and in the university as a whole. This creative approach contrasts significantly with the more traditional methods of teaching and learning in higher education. The paper reports on the development, introduction and evaluation of a work-based learning module as a pilot project. It then outlines the development of a work-based learning degree using the lessons learnt from the pilot.

This paper explores possible tactics for academics working within a context of increasing regulation and constraint. One suggested tactic is to move outside of a creativity–conformity binary. Rather than understanding creativity and conformity as separable, where one is seen as excluding the other, the authors consider the potential of examining the relationships between them. The theme of ‘structure and play’ illustrates the argument. In the first part of the paper, using various examples from art and design – fields generally associated with creativity – the authors explore the interrelatedness of creativity and conformity. For example, how might design styles, which are generally understood as creative outcomes, constrain creativity and lead to conformity within the design field? Is fashion producing creativity or conformity? Conversely, the ways in which conformity provides the conditions for creativity are also examined. For example, the conformity imposed by the state on artists in the former communist bloc contributed to a thriving underground arts movement which challenged conformity and state regulation. Continuing the theme of ‘structure and play’, the authors recount a story from an Australian university which foregrounds the ongoing renegotiation of power relations in the academy. This account illustrates how programmatic government in a university, with its aim of regulating conduct, can contribute to unanticipated outcomes. The authors propose that a Foucauldian view of distributed power is useful for academics operating in a context of increasing regulation, as it brings into view sites where power might begin to be renegotiated.