Postgraduate design research: Serving the society and the industry

Postgraduate design research has received more attention over the last two decades. Two of the major objectives of research in recent years are serving the society and the industry. Due to the time constraint and the physical resource provision and setting of research, most students' research cannot serve the objectives inclusively. Instead, sometimes these two objectives are mutually exclusive. From 2007 to 2009, a case study on postgraduate design research was conducted. The methods included in-depth review on the details of the students' study objectives and activities. Students were interviewed at different stages of their studies in order to understanding their progress, difficulties and achievements. This paper briefly reviews and advocates the importance and needs of serving both the society and the industry by postgraduate design research. Based on the case study in a postgraduate design research programme, the paper discusses how a balance of the two objectives can be obtained. The paper also identifies the difficulties, limitations, opportunities and possibilities for researchers and educators as reference for programme implementation and further investigation in order to bring a better quality of postgraduate design research.