industrial partners

we place a lot of importance on making our course industry relevant. we are always looking for partners for student projects or consultancy. you may have never considered using design students before and might have some questions about how this relationship works, what you can expect, what we expect and what the students can produce for you.

frequently asked questions
why do i want to work with students?
supporting a student project is a very effective way of generating a large concept turnover, relative to investment. as long as your intended project satisfies an appropriate academic outcome for the student group that participate, you will have the creative ideas of an entire group of students, supported and managed by an academic member of staff.

what will i get?
basically anything you want, within reason. typically student projects work best when the activity is concept based. you will get a large number of creative ideas presented to a high standard. if your needs are more specific, such as cad work or model making, we can discuss this.

when can we work together?
obviously, we work to an academic calendar. thus, the students are in studio between late september to december and january to may. obviously, the sooner in the academic calender you contact us, the easier it is for us to plan your project into the timetable.

what is my commitment?
the minimum we expect is that you attend an initial project briefing and the final presentation and if practical, provide us with examples of your product(s) to use as reference through the project. if you want to provide more support, or have more contact with the student group through the project, thats fine. these are the sorts of things we can discuss in a project planning meeting before the project begins.

how much does this cost?
there are several different ways that you can remunerate us for the work we produce for you. you might contribute payment in kind, such as equipment the students can use during the rest of their studies. you might wish to provide a summer placement to the ‘winning’ student, or alternatively, you might wish to donate something to the student’s final year show. again, this can be explored in the pre-project planning meeting.

which year will i work with?
typically you will work with level 2 students. however, if you contact us before september, you might possibly wish to use a level 3 student for the entire year (final year projects have to run for the full academic year)

what else do you do?
as well as offering design work through student projects, we also are able to provide consultancy, model making, cad design and rapid prototyping.

can i employ someone?
if you are specifically looking to employ a graduate designer, we recommend you come to the end of year show. this typically takes place mid june, if you contact us beforehand, we can advise you of the opening night date and time, where you can review the final year show and talk to the students individually.

how do i get involved?
for general queries about working with us contact:
simon sommerville srsommerville@uclan.ac.uk
for cad or rapid prototyping contact :
graham hill gghill@uclan.ac.uk