Doctorate of Design

Northumbria University

Course Overview

Are you an experienced design practitioner? Are you motivated to contribute to a field of design knowledge and demonstrate impact in a professional and academic context? This unique programme will develop your design-led professional practice and enhance your employability in both academic and industrial enterprises.

The Doctorate of Design provides both practical and theoretical content that reflects the professional requirements of your field, making you stand out to employers. During the Professional Practice Design Research module teaching will take place on a weekly basis and you will also engage in independent study, with online and/or face-to-face tutor support. We will cover a range of theoretical principles, such as: redirective practices, a reflective and transformative approach to design practices and subjects, responsible innovation and design development, and the understanding / practice of distinctive processes of design ethics. In addition, you will cover core practical research methods that will help you to effectively frame your design practice as research.

Research contribution is a key focus on this course. You will be expected to identify, appraise, and analyse the potential impact research can make to professional design practice - culminating in a thesis or practical portfolio that will inform your own practice and the wider practice in the field of design.

You will be supported academically on the programme through a combination of module tutor and supervisor guidance and assistance. All teaching and assessment materials will be available electronically on our E-Learning system, including recorded teaching materials and/or streamed material for distance-learning.

The course has been designed for professionally qualified individuals based in the UK and internationally - covering a range of design disciplines, including but not limited to industrial, graphic, digital, interior, multisensory and fashion. This programme will substantially benefit you if you wish to pursue an academic career in the field of design and develop both conceptual and practice-led research outputs and projects.

There may also be the opportunity for students to engage with professional industries and design studios as part of their thesis research, given the practice-led nature of the programme.

On completion of this course, you will have mastered the use of explicit design knowledge to make a creative impact in both industry and academia, in addition to having the attributes required to be an innovator within your own professional environment.

The professional basis of the programme means that you will be engaging with research that is directly relevant to design-based industries and design-based academic institutions. In terms of practical skills that will enhance employability, the Professional Design Doctorate includes creative thinking, group work and presentations of research questions and findings, it will enable you to hone your expertise and clearly communicate the impact you can make in different practical contexts.

Most fundamentally, the doctoral programme is designed to enable design-based practitioners to develop as research-active academics. Generating research that will centrally address relevant issues, developments, emerging practices, and challenges relating to design industries. This unique career trajectory can also have relevance for post-doctoral industry engagements and start-up business initiatives, in the industrial context of design and design development.