University of Johannesburg UJ Industrial Design Courses
With over 50 years of existence under the Department’s belt, we consider ourselves the best Industrial Design programme in South Africa, if not Africa. Professional design consultancies and manufacturers actively headhunt the Department’s graduates for employment, citing our students’ exceptional level of design skills, creativity and critical thinking as the main reasons for their pursuit. Across the entire programme students interact with professional industrial designers and industry in student projects, workplace learning and local design awards, which prepare them for the real world. Our professionally orientated curriculum with clear alignment of knowledge and practice (praxis) ensures students ready for a professional career. Professional Design Practice modules offer opportunities for those wanting to start their own enterprises, which is of great relevance to increasing employment in South Africa.
Our current academic programmes and resultant qualifications are as follows, please click on programme names to download respective brochures:
Year 1-3
Bachelors of Arts Industrial Design
The undergraduate Bachelors of Arts Industrial Design qualification prepares students to be enter the market as skilled product design technicians. The major subjects in the undergraduate programme are practical ones, which aim at developing all the required skills. These include creative, analytical, and critical thinking; visualisation; freehand drawing and freehand rendering; computer modelling and computer rendering; engineering drawing; oral communication and personal presentation; model making and prototyping. The theory subject’s complement and support the practical ones by providing knowledge vital for putting acquired skills to use.
This qualification is aimed at students who wish to enter into careers in the Industrial Design sector and who will in time and with experience or further study become professional Industrial Designers. Students who complete this qualification will be able to enter a design career as a junior designer. Design makes a significant annual contribution to the South African economy, and the industry and educational players acknowledge the importance of equipping designers with appropriate competencies and qualifications.
Year 4
Bachelors of Arts Honours in Industrial Design
The BA Design Honours (Industrial Design) and BTech Industrial Design focus on developing professional Industrial Designers ready to enter the market as Junior Industrial Designers or to start their own design enterprises. The programme is run to duplicate an industrial design consultancy and concludes with the student focusing on a final semester project and mini-dissertation of their choosing.
The BA Design Honours (Industrial Design) and BTech Industrial Design final project prepares students in terms of an understanding of design research theory and methodologies to enter the MA Design (Industrial Design) or MTech: Industrial Design. The Masters programme is a two year programme focussed on a singular design research problem which will result in a final dissertation document, which documents the students design research process.
This qualification is aimed at the accomplished design student in order to develop their design competencies further with particular alignment to academic research and market realities. This qualification will also offer the student a valuable platform from where they can launch into a viable Master’s research project.
Year 5-6
Master of Arts Design (Industrial Design)
or Masters of Technology Industrial Design (Please note this qualification will no longer be offered after 2019)
The postgraduate course provides exciting possibilities for developing well-researched and ground-breaking solutions to design problems.
This qualification is aimed at the senior student who shows an interest or aptitude in academic design research. It is an essential qualification for those wanting to follow an academic career path or wishing to specialise on a particular aspect of industrial design.