Industry ideals aren’t student realities

As a final year student representing the BA(Hons) Integrated 3D Design degree at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth, I read your editorial with interest (DW 7 May). It also pricked the vein of concern.

We are the first year to graduate from this course, and despite its success (British Steel Packaging award winner 1996/1997, nine Royal Society of Arts Student Design Awards finalists in two years, to name but a few), we feel that the youthfulness of the programme, coupled with the institute’s location may hinder our employment opportunities.

Is it easier for students from “renowned” colleges and institutes to gain employment due to their name, regardless of their creativity? As a past student of Chelsea College of Art and Design, the experience was both overrated and ill-equipped, and it also made me aware of the “I went to Eton” style of snobbery.

Such is the fear within my degree group that it would seem to be imperative for us to offer the public and potential employers a viewing of our work in London as well as in sunny Bournemouth.

Would consultancy representatives be willing to travel, and does our institute attract sponsorship with the same force as the so-called prestigious names?

As an integrated 3D course with immense freedom, we were promised that the multidisciplinary nature of the course reflects the demands of the workplace. Is this a reality or idealism?

We want to hack away at these insidious, confusing weeds that entangle our chances of a blossoming and fruitful career in the garden of design.

It is high time that the lords of this garden (employers and academics) showed more honesty to its seedlings, providing equal opportunity to us new darling buds as well as to the hardy perennials.

Matt Cranston

The Arts Institute at Bournemouth

m_cranston69er@hotmail.com