Abstract
Singapore, which started its modern life as a trading port under the British rule in 1819, became a sovereign nation in 1965, breaking away from the federation of Malaya just a few years after independence. Since 1965, the leaders of Singapore have transformed Singapore many times, starting from its trading roots, to being a manufacturing centre, to financial centre, to a service economy till its present state as R&D centre for science & technology. This paper presents an overview of the development of design education in Singapore, starting with vocational schools that taught design as a skills, through the polytechnic education systems to the present state where there are three universities offering design education at bachelor’s level together with a semi-autonomous college of the arts. While sketching the overview of design education as it unfolded since 1988, the author offers his personal insights into how the emergence of design education in this island state coincided with the changing phases of Singapore’s economy, concluding with his observation of where design education could be heading in the age of ‘design thinking’.
Keywords
design education, economic development, education development, overview of programmes
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/learnxdesign.2013.128
Citation
Sathikh, P.M.(2013) Design for a city state: An overview of design education in Singapore, in Reitan, J.B., Lloyd, P., Bohemia, E., Nielsen, L.M., Digranes, I., & Lutnæs, E. (eds.), DRS // Cumulus: Design Learning for Tomorrow, 14-17 May, Oslo, Norway. https://doi.org/10.21606/learnxdesign.2013.128
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Design for a city state: An overview of design education in Singapore
Singapore, which started its modern life as a trading port under the British rule in 1819, became a sovereign nation in 1965, breaking away from the federation of Malaya just a few years after independence. Since 1965, the leaders of Singapore have transformed Singapore many times, starting from its trading roots, to being a manufacturing centre, to financial centre, to a service economy till its present state as R&D centre for science & technology. This paper presents an overview of the development of design education in Singapore, starting with vocational schools that taught design as a skills, through the polytechnic education systems to the present state where there are three universities offering design education at bachelor’s level together with a semi-autonomous college of the arts. While sketching the overview of design education as it unfolded since 1988, the author offers his personal insights into how the emergence of design education in this island state coincided with the changing phases of Singapore’s economy, concluding with his observation of where design education could be heading in the age of ‘design thinking’.