At Inscape, we believe that meaningful industry connections are vital for nurturing future-ready design professionals. Our commitment to building partnerships with key institutes, councils, and organisations ensures our students remain at the cutting edge of industry trends and advancements.
Inscape constantly strives to form new relations with many institutes, councils and organisations representing the various specialisations within the design industry. These affiliations play a key factor in our students being at the forefront of all the latest trends and technological advancements happening in the industry.
Through these professional memberships, Inscape graduates have the guarantee that they have met all benchmarks of industry requirements, allowing them to transition seamlessly into their chosen design career. Students start building relationships, connecting, networking and communicating with other members of the professional organisations, building a network that will serve toward their success as future designers.
Inscape’s excellent track record of establishing strong industry connections and collaborating with various partners within the design disciplines has opened vast opportunities for our graduates.
Working closely with industry allows Inscape to gather key intel into the requirements and needs of the workplace, allowing us to integrate these into the learning experience and preparing students for a successful career in design.
We continuously engage with the industry to ensure a quality enabling learning environment.
These industry relationships enable students to establish career opportunities and build a network of contacts within industry while still studying.
An initiative developed to identify and promote design thinking; providing students with a platform to innovate, conceptualize and ultimately produce products, systems or services with real-world applications. The initiative exposes students to business practices and process whilst encouraging collaboration, critical thinking, communication and creativity. A rigorous process of ideation and prototyping culminates in an array of products and solutions ready for the industry partner to review and further refine for possible production.
On April 16, 2021, Inscape became Africa’s second institution to be profiled by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) for its adoption of the Circular Economy in its formal programmes. The institution joins a list of 54 international universities exploring the impact of the circular economy through programmes and courses specialising in design and engineering.
Project 81, an Inscape initiative to identify and promote solutions designed by students in response to problems or opportunities presented by partners in industry. The project includes a four or five-day-design-marathon including guest lecturers, energy drinks, coffee, collaboration, new knowledge and exploration culminating in the presentation of solutions, products or processes. It takes time and loads of energy to transition a business from the linear economy model into a circular economy business model, for 2023’s iteration, our 1st and 2nd year undergraduates were encouraged to creatively solve this real-world challenge by generating creative circular design storyboards for briefing the graphic design and marketing teams at Switch Energy Drinks, a first time Project 81 industry partner, harnessing Circular Design strategies, principles and resources provided by the EMF.
The brief: Whereas traditional unsustainable linear economies take non-replenishable resources to make things that are used and quickly discarded as waste, circular economies focus on regenerating natural systems, reducing and eliminating waste and pollution; keeping products and materials in use indefinitely. Students must harness circular design strategies to maintain and prolong product lifecycles, reuse and redistribute, refurbish for manufacturing or recycle. Students are challenged to work effectively and efficiently towards a Friday deadline, submitting pdf presentations that communicate each group’s ‘Big Idea’ towards solving the brief challenge.
This year’s programme saw 503 students supported by 70 lecturers, representing campuses in Durban, Cape Town, Midrand, Pretoria and Stellenbosch collaborate virtually in groups to solve a real-world industry-based problem. The week was further enriched by presentations featuring five local and international guest lecturers.
From the Isle of Man, Izzy Groenewegen and Hamza Egal representing the EMF facilitated an eye-opening workshop on the Circular Economy. Providing students with case studies on the capacity for circular design strategies to revolutionise businesses, products and systems across the globe, thus moving industries towards a sustainable and future-fit economy.
Michael Redforn, chief financial officer of Switch energy drinks, shared thoughtful insights and experiences of Switch as a leading South African business committed to placing a focus on sustainability and circularity. Additional presentations included those by Lodi Inga (Multimedia designer/animator and storyteller) from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and from South Africa, Nigel Smith (Performance Catalyst Corporation). All groups successfully completed and presented their projects via digital subission. To checkout student presentations visit www.inscape.ac
As profiled member of the EMF, Inscape will continue to explore and support global initiatives in the circular economy. The institutions profiling also provides opportunities for international collaboration as well as life-changing student exchange opportunities and exposure with universities across the globe. The institution currently participates in student exchange programmes with the Thomas Moore University in Belgium.
Students who have engaged in the international student exchange program attest to the freedom and benefits they have experienced. They speak of personal growth, being stretched beyond their comfort zone, new and extended cultural experiences, the opportunity to inspire and impact others through sharing their own roots, the ability to experiment and learn new languages, teaching methodologies and daily living and a new global perspective.
The exchange program is just one of the opportunities Inscape students have available to them to further their understanding of what it means to Be Local, Go Global at Inscape. Thomas More University in Mechelen, Belgium was the first institution that partnered with Inscape. We entered an international student exchange agreement in 2014, specifically for Interior Design students.
Since then, we have sent and received exchange students to and from Thomas More annually. The student exchange program is to be extended to their Business Faculty and their Media and Audio-Visual Departments. This will enable additional students from Inscape to access the program. At a strategic level, we share best practice and will soon commence collaborative projects between faculty members and students to enhance the learning experience of students at both of the institutions. Thomas More host Inscape at their International Week annually.
Inscape has been invited to join The Priority Country Programme. The Priority Country Programme has been established with the aim of promoting exchanges of students between Belgium/Flanders and following priority countries: Brazil, Chile, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Russia, South Africa, Turkey and the United States of America, on a balanced and permanent basis. Under the Priority Country Programme both a pair (two persons) of students can be exchanged in the framework of a duo-project, as well as outgoing mobility from Flanders only.
Inscape Education Group and Heriot-Watt University are proud to announce a new partnership that offers a streamlined pathway for Inscape students to pursue their master’s degrees at Heriot-Watt.
This agreement allows Inscape graduates to leverage their qualifications towards select Heriot-Watt Master’s programmes. Heriot-Watt also provides a scholarship* to eligible Inscape students who have completed at least one academic year at Inscape before enrolling in their master’s programme.
This collaboration provides Inscape students with a seamless transition to a prestigious international university and a chance to further their education at a globally recognised institution. Heriot-Watt University offers a diverse range of master’s programmes, allowing Inscape graduates to specialise in their chosen fields.
For more information about this exciting partnership and student eligibility, please click here
About Heriot-Watt University
Heriot-Watt University was established in 1821 as an outward looking innovative pioneer of education, in pursuit of knowledge to the benefit of society and the world. Initially established as The Edinburgh School of Arts, teaching classes in mechanics and chemistry, it has since grown beyond Edinburgh into a truly global university – with campuses in Dubai and Malaysia, in addition to three campuses in Scotland.
Heriot-Watt’s School of Textiles and Design is pleased to have partnered with Inscape, allowing their postgraduate students the opportunity to experience the heritage and modernity that the global school has to offer. The school itself has a long history dating back to 1883, as an institute that taught weaving, dyeing and chemistry in the Scottish Borders region. Over the years it has evolved and diversified its offering to not only expertise in textiles and fashion, but also interior architecture, branding and marketing and digital design.
The school’s main campus is located in Galashiels, a beautiful town at the heart of the Scottish luxury textiles industry in the south of Scotland. The teachings bring together talented students from across the globe to study collaboratively in Fashion, Design and Textiles. Many of the masters programmes are also taught at Heriot-Watt’s Dubai campus, which allows for a wider, multi-disciplinary collaboration between students and staff from both locations.
Julian Malins, the Executive Dean for the School of Textiles and Design said “we look forward to welcoming students from Inscape to The School of Textiles and Design, Heriot-Watt University. Bringing the knowledge and skills learnt at Inscape and continuing to expand and explore their chosen design fields at masters level.”
A full list of Heriot-Watt University masters programmes can be found here.
For more information about the Inscape programmes, visit inscape.ac
*a percentage of the tuition fees
If you missed the information session held, you can view the recording below. For more information, contact Lou Dean, International Recruitment and Partnership Manager at [email protected] or through on WhatsApp +44 (0)7546 762873.
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