The Diploma in Professional Studies (DPS) at London College of Communication offers its students an ‘open curriculum,’ a wonderful opportunity to take risks and learn by experimenting with innovative design practice in the UK or elsewhere in the world. 

Developed over 20 years, it ensures students have greater control over what and how they actively learn. It is a course where academia meets experience. DPS uniquely offers students a year to define their own curriculum, a hugely empowering opportunity with numerous ground-breaking benefits. Students undertake a range of experimental ‘Ways of Working’, including speculation and self-initiation. Coupled with this, DPS students are encouraged to work internationally and for voluntary organisations, exploring cultural and political dimensions of practice that provide a new perspective to their understanding. 

In a reciprocal process, it offers the professional sphere the possibility of engaging with new talent and challenging conventional design principles and practices. 

The Diploma in Professional Studies ‘Ways of Working’ (WOW) site seeks to expand ‘design discourse,’ to respond freshly and critically to the world of work, positioning design and research as a genuinely important ‘cultural force’, enabling professional practice to grow in stature. Design is much more than technique and technology, form and function; it is an intellectual pursuit that demands philosophical fluency. 

A DPS year encourages personal agility, resilience, adaptability, and reflection. In turn, this allows for the development of independent practitioners who think for themselves, often transcending typical brief-solution routines. Students consider justice, inclusivity and ethics, as well as challenging and defining success in new ways. DPS students are encouraged to explore their personal and creative DNA, invigorate their own critical skills, pursue self-enhancement and personal fulfilment while innovating new ways of working (WOW!).