Project Title: DT.UNI.-Design Thinking Approach for an Interdisciplinary University.
The main aim of the project is development of innovation in higher education institutions.
The project is coordinated by UMCS cooperating with 7 partners. Each Partner of the Project was carefully chosen and brings an added value to the consortium (partners are described in the section "project team").
The overall objective of the project is to enhance the level of interdisciplinary at higher education institutions by using a bottom-up approach, i.e. supporting students, researchers, academics and management staff in developing their ability to think divergently, creatively, designery (according to design thinking approach). The project will enable students to adopt a „designerly” way of thinking and facilitate their shift from passive knowledge consumers to active producers of knowledge. The challenge is to accelerate and widen the exchange of skills and opinions of social science and humanities and creative people in general.
The other goals:
1) Focus on improving high quality skills of students and teachers such as: creativity, adaptation to rapidly changing circumstances, teamwork, flexibility, ‘learning to learn’ competences, and improve perception on own capacity to solve problems.
2) Supporting innovation and creativity.
3) Promoting internationalisation, supporting changes in line with Bologna principles and tools.
The project combines two widely-appreciates and increasingly popular approaches:
1) Interdisciplinary education- explaining phenomenon, solving problem, or creating a product;
2) Design thinking – understood as a particular style of innovative problem solving,
Participants of the Project (students, researchers/academics and management staff) will:
- increase their sense of initiative and entrepreneurship;
- increase their competence in foreign language(especially English) speaking;
- increase their intercultural skills;
- increase their level of digital competence;
- acquire greater understanding of social, ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity;
- acquire more positive attitude towards the European Union and EU values;
- improve the transversal competences, including: creativity, adaptation to the rapidly changing circumstances, intercultural and multilingual competences, social development teamwork, flexibility, „learning to learn” competences, and improve perception of own capacity to solve problems;
- improve their satisfaction and motivation in daily work/study.
Summarizing, the project will bring following benefits for the particular target groups:
1) Students – general benefit for this group will be adjusted skills and competence to the requirements of knowledge based economy. Students will take part in locally organised and international workshops; a workshop for students is planned in Lublin in spring of 2018, locally organised workshops for students are planned in spring/summer 2020.
2) Researchers /academics– the general advantage for the group will be increased motivation to engage in interdisciplinary endeavours and to teach students accordingly; they will take part in locally organised and international workshops. The nearest workshop is planned in Dresden in spring 2018, locally organised workshops are planned in winter 2018/2019
3) Management staff – this group will develop their skills, such as the ability to think in a divergent, creative, innovative and interdisciplinary way, which is a core point of the project, become more open to changes at university,inter-cultural competences. They will take part in locally organised and international workshops, one of them is planned in Birmingham in winter of 2018/2019, locally organised workshops are planned in spring/summer 2019.
The project also supports the 2011 EU Modernisation Agenda for Higher Education.
Duration of the project: 40 months, start date 01-09-2017 ending date 31-12-2020.
Total grant calculated € 432880,00.
