{"id":5288,"date":"2024-08-19T13:47:42","date_gmt":"2024-08-19T13:47:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/?page_id=5288"},"modified":"2024-09-17T11:44:38","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T11:44:38","slug":"making-a-choice-choosing-your-pathway","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/studying-design-at-the-ou\/making-a-choice-choosing-your-pathway\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing a design qualification or pathway"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We offer two main design degrees at The Open University.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>BSc \/ BA (Hons) in Design and Innovation<\/li>\n<li>BDes Bachelor of Design<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The choice of which qualification to choose depends on what you are interested in and what you plans are once you complete your study.<\/p>\n<p>As a general guide, the BDes focuses on design practice and those who want to be designers in the creative industries. The BSc\/BA route offers a more open approach for those wishing to study design with another subject area (such as Engineering, Business, Computing, and so on).<\/p>\n<p>And, if you&#8217;re unsure, start with U101 and can use what you learn in that module to help make your decision &#8211; U101 contributes to both qualifications and offers a fantastic introduction to making use of creative thinking in any subject.<\/p>\n<p>You can see the different qualification pathways below.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/studying-design-at-the-ou\/making-a-choice-choosing-your-pathway\/ou-design-quals-pathways\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5396\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5396 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/ou-design-quals-pathways-896x1024.png\" alt=\"A map showing the different design modules you can study at the OU and the qualifications they lead to.\" width=\"896\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/ou-design-quals-pathways-896x1024.png 896w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/ou-design-quals-pathways-262x300.png 262w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/ou-design-quals-pathways-768x878.png 768w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/ou-design-quals-pathways-1343x1536.png 1343w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/ou-design-quals-pathways.png 1492w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 896px) 100vw, 896px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A few further differences are outlined in the table below. If you&#8217;re not sure which of these might be best for you then you can speak to a study adviser to discuss your options.<\/p>\n<table width=\"1002\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"501\"><b>Q61 \u2013 BA \/ BSc (Hons) Design and Innovation<\/b><\/p>\n<p>50% design and 50% another subject area: Engineering, Computing, Business, Systems, etc.<\/td>\n<td width=\"501\"><b>R63 \u2013 <\/b><b>BDes<\/b><b> (Hons) Bachelor of Design<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Qualification is 100% design subjects to develop both design knowledge and practice<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"501\"><strong>For students who:<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"501\"><strong>For students who:<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"501\">Want a career in a related design or creative industry<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/td>\n<td width=\"501\">Are sure they want a career in design and creative industries<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"501\">Have a strong interest in a secondary subject, such as: Engineering, Business, Computing, Arts, and other pathways offered)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/td>\n<td width=\"501\">Have little interest in a secondary subject and want to study \u2018design-design\u2019.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"501\">Have a strong interest in an academic approach to design, especially if this intersects with another subject (such as sustainability, social studies, etc.)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/td>\n<td width=\"501\">Are very interested in a practice-based and hands-on approaches to learning \u2013 i.e. a practitioner\u2019s course<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"501\">Are very interested in a BSc or BA as a qualification<\/td>\n<td width=\"501\">Are very interested in a BDes as a qualification (this is becoming popular in the UK andinternationally)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We offer two main design degrees at The Open University. BSc \/ BA (Hons) in Design and Innovation BDes Bachelor of Design The choice of which qualification to choose depends on what you are interested in and what you plans are once you complete your study. As a general guide, the BDes focuses on design [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"parent":5281,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5288","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5288"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5355,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5288\/revisions\/5355"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}