MDes (Hons) Product Design

Bachelor's degree

In Bournemouth

£ 9,250 + VAT

Description

  • Type

    Bachelor's degree

  • Location

    Bournemouth

This integrated Master's is a new course that draws on all of our experience and the success we have had with both our BSc (Hons) Product Design degree and our BA (Hons) Product Design degree. The advantage of undertaking an integrated Master's is that you are eligible for a tuition fee loan for the entire course, including the postgraduate element – an option not available if you study a traditional Bachelor's degree followed by a standalone Master's.
This award title is new at BU, as a result of the Institution of Engineering Designers (IED) being granted the ability to award Chartered Technological Product Designer (CTPD) by Privy Council. CTPD provides a Chartered professional qualification for the first time for the product design profession. This degree has been accredited as fulfilling the requirements for Chartered Technological Product Designer (CTPD). You will be entitled to free membership of the IED and receive their bi-monthly journal free of charge, too.
You'll follow the same programme as the BA (Hons)/BSc (Hons) Product Design until your final year, with both of these courses designed to provide you with the skills you'll need to develop successful commercial products. This degree offers a well-balanced mix of practical experience and theoretical study of product design, ensuring that you leave with an excellent understanding of how products are made. This knowledge can inform your designs, allowing you to consider the practicalities of producing a design, as well as its overall function and appearance. 90% of our final year students agree our staff are good at explaining things – why not come and meet us?
The opportunity to undertake a work placement in the third year of your course will give you invaluable experience of the industry, enabling you to further develop your skills and ensuring that you have practical experience and industry contacts once you graduate.
Meet the Designers
BU's annual Design & Engineering Show is where...

Facilities

Location

Start date

Bournemouth (Dorset)
Fern Barrow, Talbot Campus, BH12 5BB

Start date

On request

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Subjects

  • Staff
  • Teaching
  • Design
  • Materials
  • Project
  • Industry
  • Engineering
  • Team Training
  • Learning Teaching
  • Product Design
  • Visualisation

Course programme

Course details On this course you will usually be taught by a range of staff with relevant expertise and knowledge appropriate to the content of the unit. This will include senior academic staff, qualified professional practitioners, demonstrators, technicians and research students. You will also benefit from regular guest lectures from industry. Year 1 Core units Design Projects and Prototypes 1: This covers a series of design projects for which you'll use your expertise from the other units of the programme. You'll design and make products that are attractive to the targeted market, backed with good scientific and design principles. Materials and Processing: Learn about important properties of metals, plastics, ceramics and composites and why and how they're picked for product design. Energy and other environmental issues of materials and their processing is also covered. Design Media: Present two and three dimension drawings, renderings and designs using manual and computer visualisation techniques. You'll learn how to professionally present your design media in an industrial situation. Technological Principles: How basic scientific principles can help generate ideas and prove solutions. You'll learn about a range of mathematical, algebraic, physical and technological principles for developing solutions to design problems. User-Centred Design: The psychology and physiology of your design users. By considering user capabilities and limitations, and likes and dislikes, you can make your designs more usable and pleasurable. Year 2 Core units Design Projects and Prototypes 2: You'll be encouraged to create more complex and innovative design solutions for functioning prototypes. Your projects will cover needs like functionality, human interaction, branding and design for manufacture. Manufacturing and Production: You'll learn about modern manufacturing processes for competitive product development. Visualisation Tools: Learn about applied 3-D modelling techniques to support your design visualisation, realisation and presentation. You'll learn to support your design process by using computer, physical modelling and presentation skills, and colour, texture and light using computer and manual techniques. Management and Commercialisation for Technical Projects: An introduction to business and management. You'll learn to identify and use a company's strengths and evaluate opportunities for competitive products. There will be a focus on consumer marketing, decision making, intellectual property rights, product liability and financial and management accounting. Applied Technology: The physical laws that govern product design and manufacture. You'll learn about a range of physical and technological principles for the design of components, structures, machines and products. Year 3 (Placement) You will complete a minimum 30-week industrial work placement which can be carried out anywhere in the world. You'll get an opportunity to include a period of academic study during this time. The placement year offers a chance to gain experience and make contacts for the future. You'll choose either the BA (Hons) or BSc (Hons) option during your placement year. The BSc option has more focus on the technological areas of design, while the BA option has more focus on the humanistic and contextual issues of product design. Year 4 Core units Design Projects 3: The most important part of the course. You'll design an individual project, creatively solving product design issues. You will present a project report, and use scientific, analytical and technological principles to make functional design solutions. Design Prototypes 3: This unit is linked to the Design Projects 3 unit. You'll make functioning prototype that's an accurate representation of your individual design project. Business Development: The importance of strategic management in the business development process. You'll raise your entrepreneurial spirit and business decision-making. This will enhance your capacity to recognise and capitalise on competitive and innovative opportunities in a changing business environment. Advanced Technology - BSc (Hons) option: Design products for structural integrity and reliability, and predict the performance and reliability of service products. You'll analyse, evaluate and select new and upcoming product materials and processing methods, and gain an understanding of the implications on global resources and the environment. Humanistic Design Studies - BA (Hons) option: Design aesthetics and how to use these and other human considerations in your designs. You'll use a user-centred design methodology throughout your design lifecycle. Year 5 Core units Project Management: You will gain knowledge and understanding of the methods and techniques of planning and design of development projects and their application. You will also develop knowledge and understanding of human factors with regards to such projects. Materials Optimisation for Sustainability: You will develop a deep knowledge of sustainable development based on a multidisciplinary approach to waste minimisation. You will also learn to identify and quantify environmental impacts during the life cycle of a product/service from raw material abstraction to end of life disposal, and implement real-world sustainable development strategies. Individual Project: You will develop an understanding of the characteristics and implications inherent in the solution of a complex, real-world problem by undertaking a substantial, independently-conducted piece of work. Group Project: You will develop the management skills required to work in a team in a professional manner to produce a successful solution to an engineering problem. You will develop the ability to determine basic personality characteristics in yourself and others by undertaking a rationale analysis of how personality characteristics affect group dynamics and understanding strategies with which to manage yourself and others when working in a team; strategies for team building and conflict resolution. Option units - chose one of the following: Design Simulation: You will develop an extensive understanding of strengths and limitations of current solid modelling applications in respect of part and assembly design. You will gain an understanding of the strengths and limitations of using simulation tools for analysing and validating industrially relevant design problems. You will develop professional competence and critical awareness in the use of modern analytical techniques and tools for the product development process. Design Interaction: Through a structured process and methodology, you will develop a critical and creative understanding of interaction and ergonomic design methods. You will learn to identify, analyse and define ergonomic design phenomena and compile a design specification. Please note that option units require minimum numbers in order to to run and may change from year to year. Scheduled learning and teaching activities The hours below give an indication of how you can expect to spend your time during each year of this course. You will learn through a combination of lectures, seminars, tutorials, workshops and practical sessions. Your independent learning could include reading books and journal articles, working on group projects, preparing presentations, conducting library research and writing your assignments. Students at all levels have a substantial amount of scheduled workshop activity allowing you access to the tools and machinery to build prototypes of your designs. Workshop time significantly increases in the final year to facilitate the build of fully functioning working prototypes of your final design project, a skill which is particularly attractive to potential employers. Year 1 – 38% of your time will be spent in timetabled learning & teaching activities Learning and teaching: 348 hours Independent learning: 852 hours Year 2 – 25% of your time will be spent in timetabled learning & teaching activities Learning and teaching: 288 hours Independent learning: 912 hours Year 3/4 - 56% of your time will be spent in timetabled learning & teaching activities Learning and teaching: 672 hours Independent learning: 528 hours Year 4/5 - 14% of your time will be spent in timetabled learning & teaching activities Learning and teaching: 168 hours Independent learning: 1032 hours 72% of the course is assessed by coursework Year 1: 82% Year 2: 68% Year 3/4: 48% Year 4/5: 90% Throughout the course you will be assessed by coursework culminating in your final year research project, but you will also undertake group work and written exams. Programme specification Programme specifications provide definitive records of the University's taught degrees in line with Quality Assurance Agency requirements. Every taught course leading to a BU Award has a programme specification which describes its aims, structure, content and learning outcomes, plus the teaching, learning and assessment methods used. Download the programme specification for MDes Product Design. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the programme specification, the information is liable to change to take advantage of exciting new approaches to teaching and learning as well as developments in industry. If you have been unable to locate the programme specification for the course you are interested in, it will be available as soon as the latest version is ready. Alternatively please contact us for assistance. All statistics shown are taken from Unistats, Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE), BU institutional data and Ipsos MORI (National Student Survey) unless otherwise stated.

MDes (Hons) Product Design

£ 9,250 + VAT