The integration of fashion education in universities

Mexico - In the mid-1990s, fashion education became more integrated into academia, allowing students to receive more than just professional training. Their studies in fashion design or marketing began to combine with traditional liberal arts or business education, leading to a bachelor's degree.

This caused fashion to formalise, even legitimise, as an academic activity and a desirable career. Later, with the increasing proliferation of trending media content such as Project Runway and the rise of blogs, smartphones, and social media, colleges quickly realised the economic potential of offering programs dedicated to fashion.

The shift from fashion education to a liberal arts setting requires students to take non-fashion related courses such as science, math, and history, to name a few, in order to meet accreditation standards for an academic degree. While this ensures a more well-rounded education, it also means less time to focus on subjects directly related to fashion and technical skills training. For undergraduates, this means taking a series of core courses and maybe one or two electives, with no opportunity to dig deeper or gain experience in a particular area.

The goal is to provide a knowledge base for the student and allow them to build the ability to think critically. These are the foundations of a liberal arts education degree, upon which students can develop their careers once they enter the industry. While this approach is undoubtedly valuable, it has also led to a gap between the actual knowledge and skills students graduate with and what employers expect or need of them.

As the fashion industry becomes more global and corporate, and technology becomes more and more important, from coding to data analytics to Artificial Intelligence (AI), most fashion programs are not training students in emerging disciplines. This means that fashion students are increasingly missing out on important job opportunities to those graduating from other disciplines more focused on technology, finance and operations, as indicated in a recent report by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. That is why, aware of this change, schools have tried to adapt their programs to include more of these skills. For example, it is not uncommon for fashion design students to take business courses, including e-commerce or branding; both are very important in a world that speaks directly to the consumer.

Furthermore, with the growth and integration of fashion into the formal academic system comes to a significant increase in the price of tuition. Today it's more expensive than ever to get a degree in fashion, with tuition reaching nearly 52,000 thousand dollars a year at top schools like New York's Parsons School of Design. This is quite significant when considering that an average New York City graduate will start their career with a starting salary of approximately 32,000 thousand dollars. Not only that, but those graduates are also competing with over 2,200 fashion design graduates a year in a general market where jobs are shrinking due to outsourcing to other countries and the impact of technology. According to data from Fashionista, there are currently only 23,100 people employed as designers in the United States. The relationship is straightforward; the oversupply of people applying for jobs combined with the shortage of available jobs keeps wages low and consequently leaves students in debt and out of work.

These problems are forcing a reevaluation of education in the fashion sector so that it is more in line with the needs of the industry. Recently, educational startups have increased, especially online education, which offers more flexible, affordable and accessible learning options. Although they cannot offer degrees, or even certifications, which are still important considerations for students and their parents, they are beginning to change the conversation and the equation of what a fashion education should be in a rapidly changing industry.

The next installment in this series will be dedicated to fashion education. We'll be talking about fashion faculty aiming to legitimise their role in academia, develop a system that supports future fashion scholars, and educate students about the rapidly changing industry.

This article was originally published on FashionUnited.es and translated by Andrea Byrne.