Bachelor of Industrial Design (Honours)
Student type:
Quick facts
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Entry score
Not applicable
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Duration
Full-time 4 years
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Location
Melbourne city campus
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Fees
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Next intake
February, July
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Entry score
IELTS 6.5
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Duration
Full-time 4 years
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Location
Melbourne city campus
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Fees
AU$33,600 (2018 annual)
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Next intake
February, July
Program brochure
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Overview
This honours degree is where aspiring designers develop the skills to invent, visualise and prototype design solutions to solve complex problems.
From the air-powered 'O2 Pursuit' motorcycle to the design of an open-source prosthetic fabrication laboratory, RMIT is at the forefront of contemporary industrial design.
Throughout your studies you’ll explore the contemporary industrial design practice and undertake practical learning in design visualisation and communication design thinking; and the material and technological constructs of industrial design.
For over 60 years industrial design at RMIT has offered aspiring designers technical, theoretical and applied immersions into the diverse and dynamic fields of industrial design practice. Working on real-world problems, in industry and community contexts, with direction and feedback from experts, the program culminates in a year-long honours design research project.
You will explore through design practice:
- commercial and aesthetically-focused approaches to product, transportation and furniture design
- the design of sustainable products, services and systems
- technologically and materially mediated interactions and experiences
- design as a mechanism for enabling social reform and cultural enrichment
- the possibilities of form, process and material in response to rapid technological advances
- the increasingly blurred intersections of our digital and material worlds
- design as a way to address the needs of clients, user groups and communities
Your studies are centred around learning through design studios. Design studios provide a unique way of exploring ideas by challenging future designers and modelling the best practice of local and global design firms.
You'll learn from local and international design practitioners and build your industry networks throughout your studies.
Details
Design studios are at the core of your studies
Throughout all levels of this program you will engage in creative, industry partnered and research-led learning through design studio projects.
What is a Design Studio?
Design studios provide a unique way of exploring ideas by challenging future designers. Studios are run by academics and practicing design leaders from local and international architectural and design firms.
The design studio model emulates the best practice of local and global design firms. The studios allow you to explore design, connect with your peers, industry and integrate with other disciplines.
Design studios centre around service, technology and object orientation.
You will choose your studios from a range of options offered each semester. Studio offerings have the following orientations:
- Service Orientation: Where the focus is sustainability, social innovation, health, transport, and community engagement.
- Technology Orientation: Where the focus is universal design and ergonomics, manufacturing, technical innovation and prototyping.
- Object Orientation: Where the focus is furniture, lighting and objects for the home.
- Digital Orientation: Where the focus is on emerging digital technologies, computer-aided design (AutoCAD), and coding and interaction design.
Final honours year project
Using your studio experiences you’ll devise and undertake a complex design research project in your final honours year. Your final project will be showcased to the industry and the design community at the Graduate Exhibition, which celebrates the industrial design discipline and its future through the work of emerging designers.
Learn from local and international design practitioners
You’ll learn directly from local and overseas academics and lecturers, who are practising designers and are connected with the industry and the design community. The academic teaching staff are all engaged in areas of research and offer expertise in different fields of industrial design, and this knowledge will help to shape your design journey.
All programs are delivered in English. You will have access to online resources through the myRMIT student portal.
Ongoing assessment throughout the semester includes examinations, essays, reports, oral classes, presentations, group projects, research projects, laboratory projects and practical assignments.
Build industry networks throughout your studies
This program provides considerable scope for you to engage in real world projects within industry and community organisations. It focuses on developing innovative designers to practice in emerging technological, sustainable and social domains of industrial design.
Past students have partnered in the design and research departments of the following industries:
- automotive: Ford, Toyota and GM Holden
- technology: Philips, Spatial Architecture
- information Laboratory
- industrial design: Charlwood Design, Catalyst. Buro North
- manufacturing: Crumpler, Knog, Planex, BlackMagic
- service Design: Deloitte, Victorian Legal Aid, Vic Roads, Australian Taxation Office (ATO)
Year 1
Provides foundational exposures to the methods and nature of the designed form and the socio-cultural factors of design and designing.
Year 2
Sees an increase of the technical, technological and contextual complexity by which design activity is to be considered, and provides significant avenues of choice in industrial design practice.
Year 3
Significantly defines individual design capabilities and interests by providing a variety of design studio and elective topics from the program as well as from other disciplines in the University.
Year 4
Provides the challenge of defining and demonstrating an area of professional engagement through a year-long, research-led and industry-engaged design project. This experience acts as a scaffold for entry into the profession and opens up opportunities beyond graduation.
Choose a program structure
| Title | Location | Duration | Plan code | CRICOS | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor of Industrial Design (Honours) | City Campus |
4 years full-time
|
4 years full-time
|
BH104P15 | 080225J |
Choose a program structure
Program code: BH104
Career
Graduates work in a broad range of contexts and settings relevant to new enterprise development, design innovation and the development of contemporary cities.
They can find work in product and manufacturing companies; in the consultancy, entertainment, education, cultural and services sectors; and for research institutions.
Cross-disciplinary designers work in emerging fields of design practice; others start and run their own design or product-producing businesses.
The program prepares graduates to undertake Masters by Research or PhD after successful completion of their bachelor honours program.
Graduate successes
Below are some examples of industrial design graduates shaping the design world:
- Mike Simcoe
Vice President of Global Design General Motors, USA - Laura Morrison and Jaide-Scarlet Begg,
Service Design Analysts at Deloitte Digital - Kyle Armstrong
Industrial Designer at Katapult Design - Adrian Spagnuolo
Product Designer at Colorific, a toy design and development distributor - Jiazhen Chen
Industrial Designer at Wild Design, Shanghai, China - Luca Abate
Industrial Designer at Blackmagic Design
- Design Institute of Australia – students are eligible for student membership and graduates are eligible for full membership
- International Interaction Designers Association (IxDA) – students and graduates are eligible for membership
- Association of Women Industrial Designers (AWID) – students and graduates are eligible for membership.
Graduates are also eligible for membership of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand.
Admissions
You must have successfully completed an Australian Year 12 (or equivalent senior secondary school) qualification.
RMIT is committed to admissions transparency. View the 2018 ATAR distribution information for our degrees and information about how admissions work at RMIT:
You must have successfully completed an Australian Year 12 (or equivalent senior secondary school qualification) with a minimum 70% average (check calculator below).
Equivalent qualifications may also include completion of the RMIT Foundation Studies program or a recognised post-secondary diploma in the relevant discipline with the required grades.
Meeting the minimum academic requirements does not guarantee entry. Your application will still need to be assessed and accepted.
Entry requirements
You must complete and submit the Industrial Design pre-selection kit as part of your RMIT direct application by no later than 5pm Wednesday 18 July, 2018*. Once you submit your online application, you will be prompted to complete the selection kit.
*Kits will be assessed in the order they are received until this date unless places are filled prior
Selection kit
The selection kit requires:
- A statement outlining your relevant experience, such as employment, voluntary work, etc., or a description of what you have done, over what periods and how it strengthens your application to this program (maximum 500 words).
- A two part design ideas exercise including:
- Part 1: Visualisation - Select a product, service or system that you encounter in daily life that is ineffective and develop a visualization of your design response to change it.
You may use illustration, diagrams, story boards, comic illustration, model making (submit photographs only), photomontage, collage, painting—any medium that you think will express these ideas most appropriately.
Your vision may be informed by contemporary issues or may purely be a way of demonstrating your design ideas. Your design response does not necessarily need to be practical but it does need to be plausible in concept. Think broadly and imaginatively and ensure that what you communicate carries the design intentions of your response.
Your Visualisation must be a single page/image and formatted as either JPEG or PDF (maximum file size 2MB). - Part 2: Visualisation statement - Provide a written explanation of the design, its key aims and elements (maximum 200 words).
- Part 1: Visualisation - Select a product, service or system that you encounter in daily life that is ineffective and develop a visualization of your design response to change it.
- A folio of 3 to 5 projects or activities that demonstrate the breadth and depth of your interests and experiences. This could include projects undertaken within formal study, hobbies, and volunteer or paid work, or indeed any relevant activity that gives an insight into your design capabilities.
For each project/activity that you submit you will need to provide a short textual description of the project, its particular context of development and the key activities undertaken (maximum 200 words per project).
Each project must be presented in a single page. This page can be a composite of multiple images or a single image. Files must be formatted as JPEG or PDF (maximum size 4MB).
If you have successfully completed tertiary study in product design, furniture design, architecture or industrial design you may be exempt from completing the Design ideas exercise. You will instead be required to supply your official academic transcript/s for your previous study in product design, furniture design, architecture or industrial design and a curriculum vitae (CV).
Selection tasks for international students completing year 12 in Australia and applying through VTAC
Folio: You must supply evidence of your creativity in the form of a folio that contains a variety of your personal work in art, design or media relevant to the program/s you are applying for. The folio should demonstrate your interests and creative thinking as well as your conceptual, design, problem solving and technical skills. You should include evidence of how ideas were developed as well as finished works.
Examples of work to include in your folio are drawings, paintings, graphic designs, photographs, digital images, models, sculpture, video, scripting, short stories, and/or 2D and 3D Flash animation.
We recommend you explain each work to help the Selection Officer understand the purpose and background of that work.
Folios should be submitted electronically on a CD with files in PDF, JPEG, SWF, DCR or QuickTime format suitable to be read on Mac OSX or later, unless otherwise specified. Each electronic file should be no larger than 10MB.
You must present your folio at an assessment session (if you are living outside Melbourne, this can be conducted via email, phone or Skype).
To study this program you will need to complete one of the following English proficiency tests:
- IELTS (Academic): minimum overall band of 6.5 (with no individual band below 6.0)
- TOEFL (Paper Based Test): minimum score of 580 (TWE 4.5)
- TOEFL (Internet Based Test - IBT): minimum overall score of 92 (with minimum of 20 in all sections)
- Pearson Test of English (Academic) (PTE (A)): minimum score of 58 (with no communication band less than 50)
- Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE): minimum of 176 with no less than 169 in any component.
For detailed information on English language requirements and other proficiency tests recognised by RMIT, visit English language requirements and equivalency information.
Don't meet the English language test scores? Complete an Advanced Plus Certificate at RMIT English Worldwide.
Pathways
RMIT graduates of the following programs may be eligible to apply for exemptions:
Fees
All undergraduate and honours degrees have Commonwealth supported places (CSP) available.
In a Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP), your tuition fees are subsidised by the Australian Government. Your share of the fee (student contribution) is set each year by the government and is determined by the discipline areas (bands) of your individual enrolled courses, not the overall program.
As a CSP student, you may be eligible to apply for a HECS-HELP loan, which allows you to defer payment of up to 100% of your student contribution.
Learn more about fees for undergraduate study.
How much can I expect to pay for my Commonwealth supported place?
Courses (subjects) fall into one of three bands. The band determines the student contribution amount for the course.
Amounts listed in the table below are based on a standard, full-time study load (96 credit points per year) with all courses in the same band. A proportionate fee applies for more or less than the full-time study load or for enrolment in courses (subjects) from a combination of bands.
You can learn how to calculate your exact tuition fees for units from different bands at Fees for Commonwealth supported students.
Maximum student contribution amount for Commonwealth supported places in 2018
| Student contribution band by course (subject) | Maximum annual student contribution amount in 2018 |
|---|---|
| Band 1: humanities, behavioural science, social studies, clinical psychology, foreign languages, visual and performing arts, education, nursing | $6,444 per standard year $805 per standard (12 credit point) course |
| Band 2: mathematics, statistics, computing, built environment, other health, allied health, science, engineering, surveying, agriculture | $9,185 per standard year $1,148 per standard (12 credit point) course |
Band 3: law, accounting, administration, economics, commerce, dentistry, medicine, veterinary science |
$10,754 per standard year $1,344 per standard (12 credit point) course |
HECS-HELP
The Australian Government provides financial assistance via the HECS-HELP loan scheme, which allows eligible students (such as Australian citizens or holders of an Australian permanent humanitarian visa) to defer payment of up to 100% of their student contribution.
How does a HELP loan work?
If your HECS-HELP and/or SA-HELP loan application is successful, the Australian Government will pay RMIT, on your behalf, up to 100% of your fees. This amount will become part of your accumulated HELP debt.
You will only start repaying your accumulated HELP debt to the Australian Government once you earn above the minimum income threshold for repayment, which is set each year by the Australian Government (this also applies if you are still studying).
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will calculate your compulsory repayment for the year and include this on your income tax notice.
For more information about loan repayment options see Commonwealth assistance (HELP loans) or Study Assist.
In addition to tuition fees, you will be charged an annual student services and amenities fee (SSAF), which is used to maintain and enhance services and amenities that improve your experience as an RMIT student.
The SSAF is calculated based on your enrolment load and the maximum fee for 2018 is $298.
You may be eligible to apply to defer payment of the SSAF through the SA-HELP loan scheme. If you use SA‑HELP, the amount will be added to your accumulated HELP debt.
For more information about calculating your actual SSAF see Paying SSAF.
You may also be required to purchase other items related to your program, including field trips, textbooks and equipment. These additional fees and expenses vary from program to program.
The annual tuition fee for 2018 is AU$33,600.
The total indicative tuition fee for 2018 commencement is AU$148,800.
In addition to tuition fees you also need to pay for:
- Student services and amenities fee (SSAF) in each calendar year.
- Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) - Student visa holders must have cover for the total duration of their visa.
- Some programs incur additional expenses.
You also need to account for your living expenses. Estimate the cost of living in Melbourne.