Miriam College, Goldsmiths partner for niche graduate program in PHL

ANICHE graduate degree program called Designing Education jointly developed by Miriam College (MC) and Goldsmiths, University of London under the Commission on Higher Education-UK linkage was formally launched recently at the Miriam College-Henry Sy Sr. Innovation Center.

Present at the event were Goldsmiths’s Warden Patrick Loughrey who flew in from London for the event; Miriam College President Dr. Rosario O. Lapus; UK Deputy Head of Mission Alastair Walton Totty; and British Council Head of Education Lotus Postrado.

Also present were the first cohort of students taking up the niche program. They started classes in January and are set to leave for London in May for a study tour. Most of them are under the scholarship granted by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

Designing Education is a unique dual-awards graduate degree program made possible by the efforts of CHED and the British Council as they brought together Philippine and British school institutions to develop niche programs that otherwise would not be available for students in the country.

The program fuses the theory of design thinking—a design process that uses empathy, ideation and experimentation to come up with human-centered solutions to complex problems—and education.

Sofia de Guzman, one of the students of the program who is also currently teaching senior highschool students at Miriam College, said, “In the past several weeks, we have experienced productive failure, which is leading us to develop the mindsets of designers. I am sure my classmates will agree with me that we have learned more about empathy, optimism and ambiguity from the activities. The program does not simply push us to attain another degree in graduate school, but is designed to guide us in finding inspirations and ideas so we could create prototypes that will truly have an impact on teaching and learning.”

The program has two components, a Master of Arts in Designing Education, or MADE, and a requisite Philippine-based post-graduate Certificate in Designing Education or PGCERT, that will be taken up at Miriam College.

Part of the unique learning context of the program is a 10-day London-based field study and expert mentoring, 60 credits of recognition towards a full British master’s degree, and a four-month immersion in the UK while pursuing the master’s degree.

“We hope this exciting partnership will help inspire and equip teachers looking to introduce design thinking into the K-12 curriculum. Alongside our partners at Miriam College, we look forward to providing Filipino educators with resources and pedagogies that support risk-taking and creativity through a design-led approach to learning,” said Patrick Loughrey, warden of Goldsmiths.

The venture is anchored on both institutions’ shared culture of teacher education: Goldsmiths, in its expertise in fusing design and education, and in Miriam College’s 92 years of expertise in the area of education and on its recognition as a CHED-designated Center of Excellence in Teacher Education.

“We want to cultivate a culture of design thinking among teacher education institutions that will directly influence the practice of education in schools and ultimately, in Philippine society,” Dr. Lapus said. “We have chosen to partner with Goldsmiths University of London because we have a common vision of education—one that puts creativity, wonder and initiative at the heart of the learning process. The program is called Designing Education, for the soul of the program lies in human design: it brings the focus of education back to the learner.”

The partnership with Goldsmiths is spearheaded by the MCHenry Sy Sr. Innovation Center through the British Council and CHED’s transnational education (TNE) program. TNE offers disciplines currently not available in the country.

Miriam is the only college among a roster of top Philippine universities selected for this UK-CHED linkage.