A Strategic View of a Fashion Design Programme: What Can We Do Better?

Abstract

This paper is based on a review of Walter Sisulu University documents and the researcher’s five-year lecturing experience in the WSU Department of Fashion’s Fashion Design Programme (FDP). The paper was inspired by the department’s inability to plan, implement, and oversee operational strategies to meet the FDP’s missions and vision statements, which negatively impacted the programme’s portability and cost. I found that academic staff were unable to further their qualifications or produce research despite being given eight hours per week to spend on research or qualification development. The WSU FDP also overspends the money in the students‘materials accounts. The FDP has too many subjects, negatively affecting its graduation rates since 2008. I further found that the introduction of computer-aided design as a teaching and learning strategy would cut Creative Design II & III and Technical Drawing II & III expenditure by R175 022 compared to the 2015 costs. The FDP bought machinery in 2009 that was costly for the university and yet remains unused due to space and power limitations. The FDP could financially contribute more meaningfully to WSU’s stability and viability if the FDP were offered a spacious building and could develop and implement an extended programme. I conclude this paper by making recommendations for how WSU can improve the FDP, meet the FDP’s mission and vision statements, and strengthen its viability.