Graduates defend facility

More graduates have criticised the University of Otago and its proposal to stop offering its design programme.

Former master's student Ruth Elliott finished her undergraduate design diploma at Otago in 2012, and went on to do a one-year master's degree in design.

She now works as a designer at a ''user-centred'' design company.

Ms Elliott said a restructuring of the design department in 2010 was ''poorly handled''.

That restructuring led to the creation of the department of applied sciences, which is under threat of closure.

''Students haven't felt, since 2010, that the university has been committed to design,'' she said.

''That has huge ramifications for students studying there, because why would you study at a university that didn't support the subject you wanted to study? Why would you study at a university that you didn't know what was going to happen to the course you were doing?''

She knew many students who did not continue their design studies at Otago because they were asking themselves those very questions, and said she only stayed for a master's because ''I knew it would only be [for] 12 months''.

''The reasons why the university is trying to get rid of the department is because they see student numbers dropping, and they don't understand why student numbers have dropped.''

Student numbers had dropped, she said, because of university mismanagement of the 2010 restructuring.

''They definitely would've had the student [numbers]'' if they had handled it differently,'' she said. Design student Ben Alder was not at Otago for the 2010 restructuring, but said the proposed closure this time around was being handled ''reasonably poorly''.

''It's disheartening,'' he said.

Another former student, D Wood, finished her PhD in the design school in 2012.

She also thought the university could have handled the 2010 restructuring better.

''Doing a PhD is a stressful enough situation that the department cannot inflict that [kind of stress] on students in the middle of their studies,'' she said.

''No-one in the department or in the university came to me or the other PhD or master's students to explain what the situation was. No-one offered support.''

Both Ms Elliott and Dr Wood were fiercely complimentary of Otago's design staff. And they echoed a sentiment previously expressed by former head of department, Nick Laird, among others: the university did not appreciate or understand its own design department and its ''user-centred'' approach to design.

Ms Elliott said that was demonstrated in a quote from sciences pro-vice-chancellor Prof Keith Hunter in a previous Otago Daily Times article; ''evidence of [the design school's] world-leading nature is missing''.

''I was so mad when I read that ... because it shows that the university isn't committed to design,'' Ms Elliott said.

''They're not even acknowledging that the discipline itself is important, and human-centred design definitely is important ... It is the founding principle of so many businesses, it's where business is going at the moment.

''To say something like that just shows the arrogance of the process that they're going through.''

Prof Hunter said he was ''aware that some current and former students consider that the 2010 and 2015 restructures have been mishandled''.

''However, the correct processes were followed, including full consultation with affected parties. The comments of the students might be because the outcomes were not what they had wanted, rather than any mishandling of process.''

carla.green@odt.co.nz

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