How Draw of Derby Brought Back ADT's Dean
9 June 2011
In the mid-1980s Derbyshire College of Higher Education and the Arts Council commissioned a young photographer and filmmaker for an 18 month project, documenting Derby's industrial heritage.
Fast-forward 25 years and Professor Huw Davies is now running the department he once briefly worked for - although nowadays it's called the Faculty of Arts, Design and Technology (ADT) and the college has become the University of Derby.
Huw said: "I still remember the panel that interviewed me for that job in the mid-1980s. One of its members was the veteran photographer John Blakemore, who is one of our Emeritus Professors and still works with the University today."
In a quarter of a century many things have changed, of course.
Faculty's Evolution
ADT now has its own building - the Markeaton Street site - opened by Sir Richard Branson in November 2007, the same week that Huw joined the University as the Faculty's Dean.
It has also grown enormously, encompassing many disciplines and subjects that didn't even exist when Huw first worked in Derby.
The sheer number of courses gathered under the ADT banner becomes clearer during the annual Degree Shows, the 2011 version of which finished last week (June 4 to11).
Hundreds of final-year students publicly display their work in subjects including crafts, fashion, textiles, fine art, film, design, theatre, visual communications, architecture, music technology, creative expressive therapies and art therapy.
Huw said: "It is a massive undertaking which seems to get bigger every year. We now begin our planning for it in December, learning from and improving on what's gone before.
"In recent years we've tried to demonstrate more of the breadth of what we do, to show visitors that Degree Shows are about a lot more than displaying paintings and sculptures; they are more of a Festival of Creativity."
Degree Shows
The week-and-a-half programme of events traditionally kicks off with the Graduate Fashion Show at the Assembly Rooms. This is followed by a public exhibition at Markeaton St and Britannia Mill which includes colourful textiles, interactive audio-visual shows, therapeutic arts, and product and engineering design; and a screening of students' short films at Derby city-centre's QUAD arts venue.
"With the University's acquisition of Derby Theatre we have been able to extend the scope of the Shows even further, staging original plays in the run up to and during the period. This year we had The Country Child before the programme began and Penny Dreadful during it; both original productions in which ADT students, graduates and staff were heavily involved."
Huw says the way in which different subjects students mix and collaborate with each other in preparing for and running the Degree Shows - for example animation, and sound and live events, students supporting theatre arts - demonstrates the flexibility of ADT disciplines. The skills they learn will help them adapt to a range of possible careers.
STEM Subjects
He feels it's an important message to get across at a time when higher education funding is changing and the Government is driving towards a greater emphasis on STEM - science, technology, engineering, mathematics - subjects, to boost the UK economy.
Huw added: "These types of courses are obviously important, and ADT as a Faculty has a number of them, but nationally there is still a rather narrow view of what constitutes a STEM subject.
"Many degrees seen as pure 'arts' are nothing of the kind. Film Production, for example, requires a creative input but also requires specialist technical skills; as well as business knowledge if a film maker sets up their own production company.
"There is still this view that anything technical has to be about manufacturing and production but among the biggest contributors to the UK economy are the 'creative industries', who are more about intellectual property and innovation."
Funding Changes
This argument has become even more important with the changes to the higher education fees structure affecting students from September 2012. As the ultimate cost to the individual of doing a degree course rises, Derby and other universities need to both charge sustainable fees and convince prospective students they will be taught skills a future employer will want.
"An ADT course such as Fashion Studies is very popular, with lots of people wanting to go into an industry that also contributes greatly to the UK economy, but it's an expensive degree to run. You have to factor in costs such as materials, physical resources and staging our Graduate Fashion Show.
"You would expect fees to be higher for this course than a more classroom-based discipline," said Huw.
ADT will also be seeking to grow its international activities in future. Not just in the recruitment of non-UK students but through increased links with other countries' educational institutions, and giving home students more opportunities to visit and display their work abroad.
"We live in a global society so it's important students have the opportunity to get involved with other cultures early on," he added.
The chance to experience Derby academic life 25 years ago ended up with Huw becoming Dean of the department he worked for, so who knows where opportunities offered by ADT today might lead its students?
