The value of fashion design at universities

摘要

Sir Ken Robinson (2006) gave a fascinating and entertaining lecture entitled 'How Schools Kill Creativity'. Even as long ago as 2006, he concluded that the whole public education system around the world is dominated by a protracted process of gaining university entrance, which has as its 'pinnacle' the goal of producing university professors with PhDs. As a result of selection processes based largely on academic ability, he argued that typical academics can sometimes be described as dis-embodied or detached from the rest of the world. He also raised the issue of the extent to which higher education should be geared towards meeting the needs of modern society and industry, suggesting that the status quo is that the more useful the discipline is for obtaining a 'safe' career, the more that discipline is valued in the education system. For example, subjects such as engineering, which are likely to lead students to well paid jobs remain at the top of the highly valued subject list by both universities and society whilst the art subjects are often left nearer the bottom of the hierarchy in terms of status.