Enhancing 21st Century Interdisciplinary Design Skills within Higher Education through Knowledge Transfer Partnerships

Abstract

This paper examines how Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs), a UK, part government-funded programme can be actively used to support curriculum development across design against the needs for new graduate knowledge skills, through greater collaboration, dialogue and understanding between academia and business. The paper discusses a recent KTP with a Scottish textile manufacturer where support in design innovation through the embedding of a recent design graduate within the company enabled diversification of their brand portfolio from the oil and gas market into the premium fashion market. The authors (the academic supervisor and the graduate designer) reflect and shareas a case studythe collaborative project, that led to significant insights into the needs of graduates when working within an interdisciplinary working environment across industry and academia. Further, the paper goes on to demonstrate that industrial contexts can be successfully replicated through knowledge exchange collaboration between business and academia to inform the curriculum against the graduate competencies and skills required within industry relevant to the 21 st Century workplace.

Fostering Innovation in Education Industry: The Mediating Role of Knowledge Transfer

“…In general, it can be concluded that among all, firms' innovation relies on factors such as absorptive capacity (Ye et al, 2021), knowledge transfer (Chesbrough, 2011), and psychological empowerment (Wang et al, 2019). In addition, previous research by (Xie, Zou, & Qi, 2018;Wang et al, 2019;Fayyaz, Chaudry, & Fiaz, 2021;Cheng & Eric, 2020;Steed &Gair, 2020 andMüller, Buliga, &Voight, 2018) also supported suggestions on further study on the impact of absorptive capacity, knowledge transfer, psychological empowerment on innovation. These prior studies, however, have limitations because they were conducted in a confined context and country, necessitating more research in different industrial sectors and/or countries.…”

“…Knowledge transfer also plays a remarkable role in influencing innovation capability (Müller, Buliga, & Voight, 2018). In addition, Cheng & Eric, (2020) and Steed & Gair, (2020) suggested that absorptive capacity influence innovation.…”

“…In this view, the researcher found that little research attention has been devoted to examining how psychological empowerment via knowledge transfer enhances innovation (Wang, Wang, & Chang, 2019). Thus, the putative mediating role of knowledge transfer was investigated in this study in response to recommendations for establishing integrative models that clarify the impacts of absorptive capacity and psychological empowerment on innovation development, (Steed & Gair, 2020;Wang, Wang, & Chang, 2019;Zhao et al, 2020).…”

The Value of Attribution to Strengthen Self-Efficacy and Self-Regulation of Islamic Boarding School Students

“…Making environmental alignment of the two institutions is essential to strengthening each other so that educational goals achieve results as expected (Steed & Gair, 2020) .…”

Influence Mechanism of Structural Characteristics of Interdisciplinary Knowledge Network on College Students’ Innovation Ability

“…One significant development trend of science since the 20th century is its integration with technology and mutual penetration of science, technology, and society, i.e., the transformation from single disciplinary knowledge production mode into interdisciplinary interactive mode [1][2][3][4][5]. Interdisciplinary research has been advanced rapidly and its prosperity also reflects the basic situation for the development of science and technology in modern times, such as complicated scientific structure, organic scientific activity and softened ideal objectives [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13].…”