The value of making in education

Creative education in the UK has had a bit of a battering of late. As well as many of the country’s furniture making and foundation courses closing down under budget strain, in 2010 the Government introduced a new performance indicator, the English Baccalaureate (or EBacc), which measures how many pupils get a grade C or above in the core academic subjects like maths, science and history. The sad result is that 19,000 fewer pupils took arts subjects at GCSE last year compared with four years ago.

Formerly the head of one of the UK’s best undergraduate furniture courses (at Bucks New University in High Wycombe), Neil Austin has seen the dramatic changes in design education first hand. In 2014 the university announced it was closing the course, its international reputation not enough to save it from its high running costs. Now the head of fine furniture at the Building Crafts College in London, Neil’s role straddles design and craft, giving joinery and carpentry students a different perspective on the objects that they’re making.

Neil and his students are set to exhibit at New Designers part 2, which runs at the Business Design Centre from 4–7 July 2018. The UK’s preeminent showcase for emerging talent, New Designers brings together more than 3,000 of the most promising graduate designers. Ahead of the show, we were keen to talk to Neil about the landscape of design education right now, and his experience seeing the UK design industry grow.



What are the challenges facing design educators right now?

There appears to be misunderstandings about what design should be at all levels of education. Design is one of those subjects, which can connect all aspects of a school curriculum together – maths, literature, history, science, and so on. It makes sense of some of the more abstract elements of learning at school, and gives it a context in people, in living, and in problem-solving. Design and making has suffered from a lack of appropriate support at schools for many years now, and although the ‘design’ element has survived in a school curriculum in some way, the workshop facility has been generally downgraded or removed.

Most colleges and universities take a similar approach, offering a purely digital route to design, with little in-house support for ‘analogue’ making. Ironically, that very subject which gives so much clarity to education, in general, is seen as a difficult subject to support and is widely seen as being extraneous to the more comfortable and conformable teaching programmes on offer.

Design and making courses rely on the opportunity to experiment and play. This is fundamental to all creative acts. It needs various environments – workshops, studios, a library – almost simultaneously during a project. Educators find it difficult to capture and grade those experiences in a formal marking scheme, and some don’t even try, instead forcing a generic and inappropriate assessment process upon the work produced. And then there’s the cost of space and equipment, tutors and technicians…. but lets not get into money.

And what are you currently getting excited about?

I’m always excited to embrace the changes that get thrown at all of us on a daily basis. Design is a natural part of surviving those challenges, isn’t it? Problem-solving is our raison d’être, so we should be able to deal with the crisis that the designer-maker world is currently experiencing. The university model for the designer-maker route is well past its best. Universities have to survive as businesses: they have no compassion for courses needing care, attention and appropriate funding. My course at the Building Crafts College in Stratford is a microcosm of the bigger picture in education within the country. Here, however, we have the opportunity to write our own future in a two-year City and Guilds Course, which is up for re-validation. Now that is worth getting excited about.


You’ve switched from heading up a design-led course to one that focuses more on making, how do you hope this shift in perspective will inspire your current students?

It’s never been ‘design’ or ‘make’ as far as I’m concerned – the two processes are impossible to separate. But the point at which you introduce design is important. I have had to review my long-held belief that designers can be taught to be designers first and makers second. I now realise that in the current climate, learning to make and build should come before the design element is introduced.

This has proven to be a more effective way of achieving an intelligent and relevant design solution for projects on my course at the Building Crafts College in Stratford. This is due to the lack of any making experience which students arrive at the College with which was previously a part of a normal school curriculum. The design element itself is received very well from the students on the course when they understand that design is just a different way of approaching something, a different order of priorities to why you may want to make.

Some of the people you’ve taught over the years are now tutors themselves, what has been the experience like of seeing the design industry grow up?

It’s really rewarding for me to see former students of mine involved in the education system. To teach, you have to be passionate about your subject and want others to learn from you and exchange opinions. Many of my former students are in the teaching environment now from school to university level, and enjoy their opportunity to pass on their own knowledge. Hopefully, their own students who care enough will do the same.



How do you discover new design talent yourself?

I don’t think that I discover design talent, although I know it when I see it. The students I teach have made a decision already to get involved in an industry which I myself love. That industry is not purely furniture or product, but a creative discipline, which involves an awareness of people, society, and future developments in technologies that can enhance our lives in a meaningful way. If they are up for that, and see it as a positive move forward for their making ambitions, then they will get much from the course.



Why are shows like New Designers so important for students and for the industry generally?

It’s a celebration of the creative industries surviving and progressing despite the difficult times. New Designers is sometimes a revelation to students who have been ensconced in their place of learning while studying. At ND they are suddenly welcomed into a world of like-minded people who are doing amazing things across all disciplines of creativity. It really is an eye-opener. Visitors to the show are normally impressed by the quality of the industry show they are seeing. You make friends, connect with people who appreciate your work, get job offers, meet potential clients – all in real time.


What was the most important thing you learnt as a student?

It was to realise that the process of education and learning is continuous one, which extends throughout your entire life. A good course can only ever prepare you to make your first steps into the professional world for which you have trained as a confident and honest appraiser of your own work. After that the progress of learning continues.  

I think it's important for students of all courses to know this as I believe that many students think that they will be fully formed on graduation day. Learning to learn and be critical of your own and others’ work is the key to the continual development of your craft.