A different design discarded

Nick Laird.
Nick Laird.
As the University of Otago's design school faces the likelihood of permanent closure, reporter Carla Green looks into its history.

When Dunedin designer Nick Laird walked into the University of Otago in 1984, he did not know what had hit him.

What had hit him was the home sciences department, and the design courses he had been charged with teaching. They were courses that he would, over the next decade and a-half, shape into the department of design studies.

Mr Laird, who some people call the ''father'' of design studies at Otago, pushed for the creation of the design studies department in 2001, only to step down as head of department just a few years later and resign from the university in 2011.

His resignation followed a restructuring in 2010 that integrated design into a new department, the department of applied sciences, where it has sat alongside clothing and textile sciences and bioengineering for the past four years.

Now, the four-year-old department of applied sciences itself is facing closure.

Mr Laird said that after 2010, he saw no reason to stick around.

''I looked at [the department] and I thought, this doesn't make sense for me.''

In a December 2014 departmental review obtained by the Otago Daily Times, a panel of reviewers found the department did not make sense to them, either.

''The [design] section appears to lack a particular focus which would be suitable at filling a niche in the New Zealand design market,'' the review says.

 

The beginning

When Mr Laird arrived at Otago, he had a clear idea of how he wanted design education to be different.

''The first year, I said it's not about any of these things about making things beautiful. It's a way of thinking,'' he said.

That way of thinking was ''user-centred'' design. It was that change in emphasis - on the strategic and theoretic aspects, rather than just aesthetic - that was ground-breaking in the 1980s, Mr Laird said.

The new development was more about integrated thinking.

In turn, he was ''taking cues'' for that approach to design from academics abroad, such as American designer Dr Richard Buchanan.

Mr Laird paints a rosy picture of Otago's design department in the mid-2000s, describing it as ''world-class''.

And many of the academics who had inspired him ended up passing through the department over the years, including Dr Buchanan himself.

''It was huge,'' Mr Laird said.

''The design thinking movement had come to Dunedin.

''We were pulling in all sorts of different techniques and frameworks and methodologies and research approaches. It was a very exciting time.''

Former student Josie Brough, who is a designer for a media group, said when she was at Otago, the difference between design at Otago and anywhere else was palpable.

''At other universities or polytechnics, you get taught how to do things,'' she said.

''What they teach at Otago is all the theory behind that.''

But Mr Laird said throughout the excitement, the university did not always see the value of the design department.

He estimated it took about 15 years for the university to ''take design seriously'', and said the design school never got much support from the university.

Sciences pro vice-chancellor Prof Keith Hunter said the allegation that the university never properly understood design was ''misguided'' and there was no evidence the design department was ''world-leading''.

''We understand that the subject of design is taught differently at Otago than elsewhere, being more theoretically focused,'' he said.

''It has been claimed that this approach is consistent with world-leading trends. However, evidence of that world-leading nature is missing.

''Things such as regular visits by prominent scholars, interest in postgraduate programmes by international students, the ability to attract significant external funds, important prizes and awards are all largely absent.''

 

The end

In 2004, the design department had about 248 equivalent full-time students (Efts). In 2014, it was down to 44.

Prof Hunter has said repeatedly the ''primary consideration'' for the design school's proposed closure is the decline in Efts.

But what caused student numbers to take such a nose dive is a point of contention.

Prof Hunter said the hope when the department of applied sciences was restructured in 2010 was that the department would grow in student numbers.

''This hope has not been realised.''

But proponents of design at Otago, Mr Laird among them, have said it was that restructuring that delivered the fatal blow to Efts numbers.

These were already down around 150 in 2010, but by 2012, they had dropped to under 40.

Prof Hunter also cited design research being ''weak relative to the rest of the division of sciences'' as a reason for the proposed closure.

Mr Laird argued that while design research might have fallen short of other, more ''mature'' programmes in the division, it performed well compared with other design schools.

In Tertiary Education Commission ratings of research performance - performance-based research funding (PBRF) - Otago design was rated second and third in 2003 and 2006, respectively, in the architecture, design, planning and surveying category.

And the department of applied sciences was 35th out of 48 departments in a 2012 PBRF rating by the commission, coming in ahead of marketing, information sciences, physiology and anatomy.

Ms Brough was one of hundreds of students who protested the 2010 restructuring.

She wrote a letter from 66 design graduates to oppose the most recent proposed changes.

And throughout the process, she said, she has not understood what the university's end game was.

''I don't know what to say, because it makes so little sense.''

Mr Laird had a couple of theories himself, but was not keen to speculate. He was ''quite sad'' about the fate of the design school, though.

''Just talking about it, I can start to feel those old battle cries coming up,'' he said.

''Looking back, I think, hell, it's been a great ride - but we fell off at the end.''

carla.green@odt.co.nz

 


The story so far

December 2014: A review of the department of applied sciences finds ''success of the department in its current form is not going to be possible''.

June 2015: The university opens consultation on a proposal to close the department of applied sciences, discontinue the design major, and relocate the clothing and textile and bioengineering programmes. Seven full-time department positions, almost all design employees, would be lost. July: Consultation on the proposal ends. The ODT understands a decision is expected to be made by the end of August.


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