Press Release 17 September 2012
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| From left: Prof. Seona Reid (GSA), Prof. Tan Thiam Soon (SIT), Mr. Edmond |
The Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) sealed a partnership today to offer two Bachelor of Arts degree programmes in Communication Design and Interior Design. Qualifying polytechnic students enrolled in these degree programmes will be given advanced standing and graduate with Honours after two years. The ceremony also marks the beginning of the GSA’s inaugural school year at Temasek Polytechnic (TP). Classes for future cohorts will be conducted at the SIT@TP building when construction is completed in Q4 2014.
The campus in Singapore, setup in partnership with the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) will initially offer two programmes in Communication Design and Interior Design. The institute also aims to introduce additional programmes over the next few years to support Singapore’s ambition to be the creative hub of South East Asia.
As Singapore continues to work towards being a global city for creativity and excellence in Asia, there is a growing demand for more skilled and innovative designers who will be able to contribute to society and inspire the public to understand and appreciate good design. The partnership between SIT and GSA serves to fulfill this purpose.
Professor Tan Chin Tiong, President, SIT said, “The study of design is very niche; it is thus important to ensure that up-and-coming designers possess the right skills and knowledge to solve real world design problems. The Glasgow School of Art is a premier institution of fine arts, design and architecture. Our partnership with them is a testimony of our commitment to provide a world-class education for our students and produce graduates who are industry-relevant and highly sought after.”
Commenting on the tripartite partnership, Professor Seona Reid, Director of The Glasgow School of Art, said, “Glasgow School of Art’s reputation is based on the outstanding success of our graduates. Equipped with the creative and critical thinking which our education programmes provide, our graduates are able to build successful careers whatever they choose to do and wherever they choose to do it.”
“We are delighted to work in partnership with the Singapore Institute of Technology on our exciting new initiative, The Glasgow School of Art Singapore. With our combined expertise and vision we will develop a new generation of graduates who will bring their creativity and critical thinking to support the continuing growth of Singapore.”
The Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Communication Design degree programme focuses on three distinct specialisations: Graphic Design, Illustration and Photography. With increasing prevalence of the use of digital technology in the communication design industry, the degree programme will encourage students to creatively articulate their ideas by integrating digital technology with traditional techniques of drawing, printing, photography and other graphic processes. It also aims to train students to develop an inventive and critical approach when solving communication design problems. The design programme advances students’ professional skills through discourse on dominant topics related to sustainability and ethics.
Similarly, the Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Interior Design degree programme encourages a critical awareness of the use of design methods and design thinking. The industry requires skilled interior designers who possess a keen sense of creativity and imagination of spaces within new and existing buildings, and recognise that intelligent interior design is a key contributor to an improved quality of life. This degree programme will thus train the students to understand the qualities of a site and host building, and the needs of the people who will populate it.
Graduates of the GSA from its design, architecture, fine art, digital and design engineering programmes include:
- Royal Designer for Industry, Dr Ian Callum, acknowledged as one of the world’s foremost automotive designers;
- Iain McCaig, one of the leading conceptual designers in the motion picture industry who has worked on films including Star Wars, Harry Potter and the Goblin of Fire and;
- Janice Kirkpatrick, founder of one of UK’s interdisciplinary design consultancies, who has worked with clients such as Missoni and Radisson SAS.
As part of the SIT-GSA partnership, the DesignSingapore Council (DSG) was consulted in areas such as the specific skill sets required to meet the increasing demand of the design industry. Mr Jeffrey Ho, Executive Director of the DesignSingapore Council said, “DesignSingapore Council is pleased to have played a part in SIT’s alliance with The Glasgow School of Art, one of the United Kingdom’s most illustrious institutions for the study of fine art, design and architecture. Undergraduates embarking on the two new degree programmes will benefit immensely from the GSA’s exceptional history in art and design education. We congratulate SIT, the GSA and TP and wish the partnership every success.”
About Singapore Institute of Technology
Established in 2009, SIT is an initiative of the Ministry of Education offering undergraduate degree programmes primarily for polytechnic graduates. In partnership with various reputable overseas universities, SIT has brought to Singapore some of the world’s top industry-focused degree programmes targeted at growth sectors of the economy.
Through a unique tripartite collaboration with its overseas university partners and the five local polytechnics, SIT represents a new model that is set to become a key pillar of university education. SIT adopts a distributed campus model to allow greater synergy and efficiency. Through this model, SIT’s degree programmes will be housed within an SIT building in each of the polytechnics to cater to an intake of at least 2000 full-time students per academic year by 2015.
About the Glasgow School of Art
The Glasgow School of Art (GSA), based in Scotland, is internationally recognised as one of Europe’s foremost higher education institutions for creative education and research in fine art, design and architecture.
Since the GSA was founded in 1845 as one of the first Government Schools of Design and as a centre of creativity promoting good design for the manufacturing industries, the GSA’s role has continually evolved and realigned to reflect the needs of communities it is part of, embracing in the late 19th century fine art and architecture education and today, digital technology.
From September 2012, the GSA will deliver years three and four of its Bachelor of Art (Hons) Programmes in Communication Design and Interior Design in Singapore, in partnership with the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and Temasek Polytechnic (TP).
Students studying in Singapore will benefit from not only the same programme of study and award as in the home institution, and resources and equipment according to the GSA specifications, but also access to the additional specialist resources, equipment and workshops of TP.
Every student studying in Singapore will also have the opportunity to spend four weeks in Scotland at the GSA, working directly with their counterparts in the same programmes based in Glasgow. This extra credit-bearing component will provide a chance to see the graduation exhibition, experience the history of Glasgow and the GSA, of the local cultural and industrial context, and location-specific projects drawing on all of these.
For SIT media enquiries, please contact:
Ms Hazel Wee
Executive
Marketing Communications
Tel: 6592 1154/ 9278 7298
Email: Hazel.Wee@SingaporeTech.edu.sg
For the GSA Singapore media enquiries, please contact:
Judith Knight / Archanaa Raja
ICON International Communications
Tel: +65 6220 2623
Email:
jknight@iconinternational.com.sg
araja@iconinternational.com.sg