UK: A new chair for Britain’s Design Council

Sir Michael Bichard, former top civil servant and rector of the London Institute, the largest art and design institution in Europe, has been appointed chair of the British Design Council.

After 20 years service in local government and nearly 10 in central government, including six years as permanent secretary of the then Department for Education and Skills, Bichard became rector in 2001 of the London Institute which was renamed the University of the Arts London three years later.

In January 2004, Home Secretary David Blunkett asked Sir Michael to head an inquiry into child protection procedures following the conviction of school caretaker Ian Huntley for the murders of two 10-year-old school girls in Soham, Cambridgeshire. His hard-hitting report caused a shake-up of record keeping and vetting in police forces and education departments.

When Bichard takes up his unpaid new appointment in January, a key task will be to build on the ideas of a report by his predecessor, Sir George Cox, who was asked to investigate how creativity could work for business.

One of Cox’s recommendations was to establish multi-disciplinary centres in universities to bring together management studies, design and technology. The Royal College of Art and Imperial College London took up the challenge, announcing the establishment last month of a £5.8 million (US$12 million) centre called Design-London at RCA-Imperial.

The centre will create an ‘innovation triangle’ between design, engineering and technology with MBA graduates at Imperial’s Tanaka business school. The Higher Education Funding Council of England will cover £3.8 million of the total amount over three years and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and Arts will provide £900,000.

Academics worldwide are aware of a growing appreciation by business of the importance of design, which is leading to greater collaboration between institutions across continents. Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, for example, is working with Esade Business School in Barcelona.

Sir Michael will, no doubt, put his considerable energy and knowledge of education into promoting similar enterprises next year.