Designing Futures, a new educational programme that will prepare students to deal with the complexity and uncertainty of life and the future world of work, has been launched at NUI Galway.
The purpose of Designing Futures is “to enhance the employability of NUI Galway graduates by offering additional practical and creative teaching, learning and skills development alongside traditional degree studies.”
Approximately 1,500+ students are taking part in design thinking programmes each year, with more than 300 students attending new transdisciplinary modules in 2021/22.
Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris, T.D., said: “Designing Futures is a really exciting and dynamic programme which aims to deliver a unique mix of skills coaching, trans-disciplinary modules and curriculum reform all underpinned by technology.
Designing Futures
The programme aims to
- Promote greater student engagement with civic society, community and enterprise, while expanding their education and preparedness for life and a career.
- Empower students to design personalised skills development pathways and to ensure graduates transversal skills achievements are recognised alongside their degree.
- Enhance NUI Galway and Ireland’s position as a leader in innovative, student-centred and enterprise-engaged education in Europe and internationally.
NUI Galway’s Designing Futures is funded by €7.57 million from the Higher Education Authority’s Human Capital Initiative of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.
Designing Futures has three core pillars –
1. A personalised student experience scaffolded by success coaches to support students to “design their futures” with a key focus on maximising their university experience. This incorporates an innovative personal development module, Designing Your Life (DYL), linked with and based on the approach which has been developed by Stanford University.
2. A new state of the art human-centred design studio, IdeasLab, which intersects with our enterprise partners to develop curricular and co-curricular experiences that are driven by design thinking, technology-enhanced learning, curiosity, creativity and empathy.
3. A new suite of modules focused on trans-disciplinary learning and action, which breaks down the traditional silos of academic specialism, promoting innovative thinking and problem-solving. Modelled on an approach developed in Georgia Institute of Technology, multidisciplinary teams of staff and students are brought together to solve research challenges in culture, enterprise and society.
source: www.nuigalway.ie
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