Editorial

Abstract

Since its inception 18 years ago, the most prominent event on the agenda of the Design Education Forum of Southern Africa (DEFSA) has been an annual conference. A selection of six edited papers from the Forum’s recent conference held in November 2009, entitled Opening gates between and beyond design disciplines, is featured in this edition of Image & Text. The selected papers are also available on the Forum’s website where they are published as part of the complete set of conference proceedings. Although the conference theme covered a fairly broad terrain, the six selected papers specifically demonstrate how tertiary design education in South Africa has responded, and is responding, to changes brought about by revised national education policies, social imperatives and new opportunities. These responses are positioned within the characteristics and constraints of specific educational environments.