Product Design & Innovation

Why this course?

Product design is an exciting industry that continually evolves alongside technology, product advancements, the demand for quicker turnaround times, unique and personalised products and environmentally friendly supply chains and production.

Product design is about understanding people and their emotional connections with products, questioning existing ways of doing things and seeing opportunities to change things for the better.

Product design and innovation encompasses a variety of skills including an engineering theoretical understanding with marketing, branding, user experience, entrepreneurship and provides our graduates with all of the skills to successfully benefit both their own ventures or to become innovators within other businesses.

This is integrated with manufacturing processes, CAD, rapid prototyping and digital prototyping technologies, software and practical skills to turn the design into reality which is fundamental to global market success and requires not only customer appeal, aesthetics and brand awareness but also consistent and correct functionality, superior quality and fitness for purposes all at a competitive price.

Highers	Standard entry requirements*: AAAB (Maths or Physics or Engineering Science) Minimum entry requirements**: BBBB (Maths or Physics or Engineering Science)
A Levels	Year 1 entry: ABB-BBB Year 2 entry: AAA-ABB (Maths or Physics or Design & Technology)
International Baccalaureate	Year 1 entry: 34-32 (Maths HL5 or Physics HL5) Year 2 entry: 36-34 (Maths HL6 or Physics HL6) A-Level, Higher or HL Art & Design, Design & Manufacture or Graphic Communication recommended
HNC/HND	Year 1 entry: relevant HNC, A in Graded Unit Year 2 entry: relevant HND, AA in Graded Units
International students	View the entry requirements for your country.
English language requirements	If English is not your first language, please visit our English language requirements page for full details of the requirements in place before making your application.
Additional information	deferred entry is accepted SQA Higher Applications of Mathematics is not accepted instead of Higher Mathematics both IB Higher Level Mathematics pathways are accepted

Careers

Technical knowledge, creative flair, problem-solving and a passion for designing and refining the usability of luxury to everyday items is what’s needed for a career in product design.

Work experience is highly desirable for graduates applying within the product design industry, to best demonstrate their team working abilities, skills and portfolio breadth. Our students truly benefit from the industrial group project which is integrated into their degree, to provide them with this necessary experience to stand out when competing for graduate jobs. Furthermore, many of our students gain placements and internships throughout their studies to advance their professional development ahead of graduation.

Companies return year-on-year to recruit from our department, and specifically, companies such as Chivas Regal, Adidas, Rolls Royce, Dyson and Jaguar Land Rover have our graduates covering a plethora of roles across their teams. Some of our graduates go on to graduate trainee programmes with companies such as Diageo, Accenture, Unilever and Procter & Gamble.