INNOVATIVE, SUSTAINABLE INTEGRATED PRODUCT DESIGN -MASTER PROGRAM IN DEVELOPMENT IN CO-OPERATION BETWEEN UNIVERSITY AND BUSINESS

The Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education, NOKUT, was established by the Norwegian Government in 2002 and commenced its activities on 1 January 2003. NOKUT is an independent government body. Through evaluation, accreditation and recognition of quality systems, institutions and course provisions, the purpose of NOKUT is to supervise and help to develop the quality of higher education in Norway. This implies new challenges for the different institutions. Educational institutions in Norway will through this new setting operate as market-players in another way than earlier. To be recognised in the market of education all institutions need a clear profile. Another important challenge pointed out by the Norwegian government is the need for entrepreneurship and innovation to create value and new businesses. The institutions are also expected to be players both locally, nationally as well as internationally. To meet these new challenges, a strategic process at Akershus University College, (HiAk), has decided that Innovation and Sustainability shall be developed to be the main theme of our University reputation as well as core part of our student competence. This decision along with the directions from NOKUT, leads to interesting possibilities for the Faculty of Product Design. In particular, Hiak has given our faculty the opportunity to develop a new master program in addition to our existing bachelor study in product design. The purpose of this paper is to present the process of developing this new master program as well as the final result, the program for master in product design and innovation. To identify a balance between theory and practice has been very important to us in this process, in order to achieve the expected level of knowledge and skills. This work has been inspired by our vision to educate students with the competence of being both change agents and product designers. As important in all product development processes, the user-orientation has therefore been of highest importance during the process of designing a new master program. Students in bachelor programs, former students, teachers and researchers from other faculties at HiAk, government, business and other stakeholders have been, and are closely involved within the whole process of developing our new master program - Product design and innovation. However, to be able to translate the strategic and regulatory directions from Hiak and NOKUT into pedagogic and operative terms for all students and collaborative networks linked to the Faculty of Product Design we need to specify how we understand innovation, sustainability, integrated product design and co-operation between university and business. The following chapter presents therefore the main terms used in this paper and discusses the relation between them.