“...the logical, competent decisions of management that are critical to the success of their companies are also the reasons they lose their positions of leadership” (Christensen, 2013)”

The fact that the average lifespan of an S&P500 company has reduced by a quarter in the last 100 years is well – witness Polaroid and Kodak in the photographic industry or the more recent descents of Nokia or Motorola in the mobile industry – to give but a few often cited examples. Against this backdrop, the higher education ‘market’ currently finds itself at the nexus of several fundamental shifts of its: from the globalisation of educational provision and near universal access to information; to rising income inequality and a growing political polarisation (in Europe at least) between the provision of ‘free’ and ‘for a fee’ higher education.

While corporations are haunted by the spectre of their own potential downfall and have as a result developed a recognised suite of approaches – from the ‘skunk works’, joint venture, acquisition or organisational change programme– to try to ensure their future relevance; the ‘industry’ of education; those universities with real estate, departmental structures, existing offerings and engrained cultures of their own, struggle with the uncertainty of change and a lack of recognised approaches to curriculum design.

When considering design education in particular, this situation is especially acute. In the sphere of design practice, the language of innovation – and the distinction between incremental and radical innovation – has been adopted to frame and describe the nature of change required by creative efforts. However, from a review of design education literature and interviews with design educators conducted by the researcher, it appears that the very process of design and language of innovation often introduced in educational work with students, is not consciously adopted by institutions when considering the future development of their own programmes). Moreover, there is very little existing research into this topic.