Abstract
This author asserts that U.S. higher education must greatly accelerate the rate at which it innovates by fundamentally redesigning itself. The paper approaches this subject by first outlining the significant challenges faced by American colleges and universities. It then analyzes the case of a university that is facing these challenges by broadly integrating design thinking into its curriculum and planning processes. The author frames the rationale for pursuing an innovation agenda in this manner and critically presents the results. The case suggests that under certain conditions it is possible for universities to become designable, and when this occurs innovative and integrative change is possible.
Keywords
design thinking, organization design, university innovation
Citation
Swearer, R. (2012) Transforming Universities with Design Thinking, in Israsena, P., Tangsantikul, J. and Durling, D. (eds.), Research: Uncertainty Contradiction Value - DRS International Conference 2012, 1-4 July, Bangkok, Thailand. https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/drs-conference-papers/drs2012/researchpapers/131
Transforming Universities with Design Thinking
This author asserts that U.S. higher education must greatly accelerate the rate at which it innovates by fundamentally redesigning itself. The paper approaches this subject by first outlining the significant challenges faced by American colleges and universities. It then analyzes the case of a university that is facing these challenges by broadly integrating design thinking into its curriculum and planning processes. The author frames the rationale for pursuing an innovation agenda in this manner and critically presents the results. The case suggests that under certain conditions it is possible for universities to become designable, and when this occurs innovative and integrative change is possible.