Ethics & Accountability in Design:
do they matter?

The 13th National and 7th International DEFSA Conference was held in September 2015 and was hosted jointly by Midrand Graduate Institute &  Vaal University of Technology

The aim of the DEFSA 2015 conference was to honour and grow an emerging principle-driven, civic minded and human-centred design culture that takes issues of the sustainability, credibility, corporate social responsibility, professional accountability and personal integrity to heart. The typical worldview rhetoric of what should be done is redirected towards individuated responses and actions that foster meaningful change.

20/20 Design Vision

The 11th National (and the 6th International) DEFSA conference was titled 20/20 Design Vision. A total of 23 papers were presented over a two-day period, addressing a range of topics that were pertinent to the conference theme. Of these papers 22 papers were accepted for publication in the conference proceedings.

In 2011, the Forum celebrated its 20th anniversary and in so doing, marked an important milestone in its reflection on design education from the past, present as well as visions for the future.

FLUX: Design Education in a Changing World

DEFSA's 9th National and 5th International Conference was held in Cape Town, South Africa between the 3rd and 5th of October 2007 and was endorsed by Icograda. The Cape Peninsula University of Technology hosted this year's conference. 

Design Education in a creative economy

The 7th National DEFSA Conference took place in September 2005 at the South African Reserve Bank Conference Centre, Pretoria. The line-up of speakers represented education, business and government sectors.

The Reserve Bank served as an apt backdrop for conference theme - Design Education in a Creative Economy.

• design innovation as an important factor in economic development,
• design as a cognitive activity and the importance of acknowledging design as an academic subject
• the powerful collaborations that are possible between design education and business.

Mapping new Territories in Design Education

The 5th National and 4th International DEFSA conference was hosted in 2001 by a group of Gauteng Education Institutions: Technikon Pretoria, Technikon Witwatersrand, University of Pretoria and Vaal Triangle Technikon as part of the first National South African Design Week.

The Fourth International Conference investigated the boundaries and interface between disciplines within the conference theme.