Shaping design entrepreneurs in higher education: the development of a UK integrated master’s degree programme – MSci Design, Enterprise and Innovation

Creating value through design is a challenge that requires being business savvy as much as it requires talent, methods and skills. Design departments or design enterprises can achieve sustained success only if their organisational structures, business models and strategic choices are showing an awareness on the market. Designers who understand what enterprises are made of find it easier to contribute on strategical and tactical level, and develop their practice. However, the current design education in UK higher education mostly focuses on design skills, methods, and creativity. Design education needs more attention on developing enterprise skills to promote entrepreneurship. Therefore, this chapter discusses a newly established integrated masters degree – MSci Design, Enterprise and Innovation, demonstrating the innovative curriculum development on this topic as well as successful collaborations across different schools. The philosophy behind this programme is to enable students to learn about how design and entrepreneurship come together to benefit development, as well as enable design students to start their own business.