After a highly competitive process, Derek Jones, Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Design at The Open University has received a National Teaching Fellowship (NTF) from AdvanceHE.
The award recognises his contribution to the development and improvement of design education at national and international levels.
The National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) celebrates and recognises individuals who have made an outstanding impact on student outcomes and the teaching profession in higher education.
Receiving the news that he had won this award had even more significance for Derek as the timing coincided with the final approval of three new undergraduate Design qualifications, including the introduction of a new non-BA/BSc designation – the Bachelor of Design (Honours) (BDes).
Design education aims to find solutions to problems in every aspect of life, not just in the creative industries. Everything, from sustainability to complex systems, can benefit from a design and innovation approach – this is something the OU has pioneered since its inception.
Derek said:
“It’s great to see this area of education being recognised at this level. Design education allows students to make new things and to engage in different types of thinking. And that’s the kind of thinking that the world needs right now.”
Derek was recognised for his contribution to the development of new learning technologies, as well as curricula in distance design education by connecting teaching, scholarship and research to improve the student experience. His work focuses on improving the quality of design education through building, developing, and supporting communities of design educators at national and international levels.
During the pandemic, it was supporting this international community that allowed a much larger network of design educators to support their students in a time of global crisis. Receiving praise from colleagues across the Higher Education sector, his work allowed others to feel more at ease to teach from a distance and to make improvements to how they taught design. Furthermore, the material produced to support these networks is now in production as part of a new book series on design education.
