Doctorate of Design
3 Years Part-Time | January and October Start

The Doctorate of Design (DDes) is a creative and practical focused advanced qualification, with an emphasis on developing your experience and employability through research training.

You will gain a foundational knowledge in research methodology, design concepts and theory, ethics, and research design principles by means of the 30-credit taught core module (Level 7). Teaching will take place on a weekly basis and can be delivered face-to-face or online (synchronously and asynchronously), using cutting edge software such as Blackboard Collaborate and Panopto.

Across the taught element, there will be a combination of structured lectures, workshops, directed learning activities, group work and seminar presentations. With a focus on creative student-centred learning and self-evaluation/reflection at each juncture. You will be taught by suitable academically qualified staff and research active members of the School of Design.

By the end of the taught element you will be required to produce a research proposal. This is the equivalent of the PhD Project Approval and meets the same criteria. Once successfully completed, you will further develop and progress your research during the independent research phase of the DDes (supported by your supervisor).

You will be assessed on a Pass/Fail basis for the taught Professional Practice Design Research module and your thesis will be reviewed as part of the Annual Review process within the Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences and will be formally assessed in a viva voce examination.

The teaching team on this course consists of qualified educators and design practitioners with extensive experience, research and knowledge in a variety of contexts across the field of design. Each will bring their creativity and expertise to the classroom to enhance your learning experience.

With many years’ experience supporting design students, our expert team will be there as a support through every step of the programme, ensuring students leave with confidence and the professional knowledge needed to succeed in the field of design practice.

You will be supported pastorally most immediately through your allocation of a Principal Supervisor based in the School of Design, and you will also have an additional Second Supervisor who will also give you both academic and personal support.

Furthermore, additional PGR support is provided by the School of Design’s Lead of PGR, the Faculty Lead of PGR, and Northumbria’s Graduate School.

This course is based at the Northumbria School of Design, which is located at City Campus East – a dedicated learning space that is located within Newcastle city centre.

Throughout the duration of your programme, you will have access to state-of-the-art facilities such as our University library – which is ranked in the top three in the UK – and well equipped working space, The Hub, which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Your learning experience will be enhanced though the use of technology and learning materials such as module guides, assessment information, lecture presentation slides and reading lists will be available via our innovative e-learning platform, Blackboard. You can also access student support and other key University systems through your personal account.

The Doctorate of Design (DDes) is taught by our team of research-active academics who incorporate their individual areas of specialism into teaching.

You will work with your supervisory team which will help you to locate and critically evaluate and apply up-to-date design research to enable you to engage in research independently, which forms the basis of Year 2 study (and Year 3 if you are a part-time student).

The programme will support you in becoming a researching professional by studying a professional doctorate, rather than an academic researcher by studying a PhD. In this way, the DDes assists practitioners looking to develop their experience and employability through research training, which will substantially benefit you if you wish to pursue an academic career in the field of design and develop both conceptual and practice-led research outputs and projects.

You will complete a review of your planned and completed research training at the end of the Design Research module (and when applying for subsequent annual progressions). This review requires you to reflect upon your training and experiences to date and allows you to identify any further training requirements that you feel you may need to complete your thesis. Additionally, you will be able to employ effective information searching strategies to identify and retrieve current literature relating to their research using appropriate information resource tools to undertake your research.

On completion of this course, you will have mastered the use of explicit design knowledge to make a creative impact in both industry and academia, in addition to having the attributes required to be an innovator within your own professional environment.

The professional basis of the programme means that you will be engaging with research that is directly relevant to design-based industries and design-based academic institutions. In terms of practical skills that will enhance employability, the Professional Design Doctorate includes creative thinking, group work and presentations of research questions and findings, it will enable you to hone your expertise and clearly communicate the impact you can make in different practical contexts.

Most fundamentally, the doctoral programme is designed to enable design-based practitioners to develop as research-active academics. Generating research that will centrally address relevant issues, developments, emerging practices, and challenges relating to design industries. This unique career trajectory can also have relevance for post-doctoral industry engagements and start-up business initiatives, in the industrial context of design and design development.