Beijing Normal University

Custom course for university teachers and academics from leading universities in China.

Overview

The course was delivered live from London via zoom, for participants from 30 universities across China gathered in person at Beijing Normal University School of Future Design. We welcomes academic staff from leading institutions including the Central Academy of Fine Arts, China Academy of Art, Donghua University and Tongji University, together with guests from industry. The course was convened by Dr Delfina Fantini van Ditmar.

Course structure

On the first day, keynote speeches on "What is the future of design schools?" were delivered by Dr. Gao Peng, Dean of BNU School of Future Design and members of the School of Future Design Academic Committee, alongside RCA’s Professor Naren Barfield, Deputy Vice Chancellor and Provost, Professor Paul Anderson, Dean of the School of Design, and Dr Nick de Leon, Executive Education and founder of the Service Design MA.

Academic activities included service design seminars, workshops, innovation design engineering course sessions, InnovationRCA exercises and graduate talks, aiming to explore the value of service design and innovation design in design education in this post-pandemic era. Professor Clive Grinyer, Head of the Service Design MA, introduced the course, method of teaching and case studies. Gareth Loudon, Head of Programme Innovation Design Engineering and Global Innovation Design, introduced current developments in the Innovation Design Engineering (IDE) MA program.

Outcomes

This course brought together outstanding Chinese and international design educators to discuss the development strategy of design schools in the future. The course culminated in a service design workshop, where teams put new skills and methodology into practice.

We run similar courses for Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts and Donghua University in China.

“This training course gave an authoritative explanation of service design, clarified the relationship with other similar concepts, emphasised the two-way influence mechanism between schools and partners, and taught us how useful and pragmatic service design is.”
Liwen Gu, Donghua University and Professor Shanghai International College of Fashion and Innovation

School of Design
Executive Education

Dr Delfina Fantini van Ditmar, Course Convenor from RCA, welcoming participants from Beijing Normal University
Dr Delfina Fantini van Ditmar, Course Convenor from RCA welcoming participants from Art and Design Universities in China on Day 1 to RCA x China_ Art and Design Academy Executive Education Course with Beijing Normal University_ Scho (1)

Professor Naren Barfield RCA Deputy Vice Chancellor and Provost & Professor Paul Anderson Dean of the School of Design speaking on Day 1
Workshop participants from Beijing Normal University
Professor Clive Grinyer presenting the Service Design MA to academics
Professor Ling Min from Shanghai with participants

More information

Custom Executive Education

Custom Executive Education Masterclasses and Workshops

Through our portfolio of innovation masterclasses and workshops, the RCA provides senior-level professionals and business leaders with critical business skills. We deliver courses for businesses, organisations and universities on design thinking, service design, creative leadership, disruptive innovation, entrepreneurship, human-centred design, artificial Intelligence and healthcare design.

We can tailor the curriculum for a day, a week, or several weeks over the course of a year with interrelated projects. Courses can be delivered online, on-campus, hybrid or at partner organisations. Previous courses have been delivered in Dubai, Japan, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Germany and Mexico.

Find out more here.

Please get in contact with us if you would like to discuss developing a custom programme:

Peter Christian, Head of Executive Education
Hattie Allen, Executive Education Manager

Tutor (Research)

Dr Delfina Fantini van Ditmar is a biologist and design researcher. Her practice is concerned with ecological thinking, reflective systemic practices, regeneration, more than human approaches and alternative futures. Delfina worked previously as a Senior Tutor (Research) at the MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering and as a Tutor (Research) at the Design Products Programme.

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