Four hundred and eighty four AKTO graduates
collected their Diplomas of Higher Education, Bachelor of Arts
certificates and Master of Arts certificates from Middlesex
University at the 19th annual graduation ceremony for AKTO students
in Athens.
«AKTO is an institution with an excellent reputation, earned by
working to the highest possible standards from the day it started,"
said Middlesex University Deputy Vice-Chancellor Dr. Terry Butland,
who awarded the degrees. "The standard of our degrees, awarded here
at AKTO, are equivalent in every respect to those obtained by
students at Middlesex University in London."
Middlesex University is the second-largest public university in
the UK, with 36,500 students in London and all over the world.
AKTO offers its 2,000 students a choice of ten degree courses in
Art and Design resulting in BA or MA degrees from Middlesex
University. They cover the core design disciplines of Graphic
Design, Product Design, Interior Architecture, Fashion Design, Fine
Arts & Technology, Sketch-Comic-Cartoon, 3D Animation &
Multimedia Productions and Photography. A new BA course in
Marketing & Advertising has just been launched this year. These
courses make AKTO the most comprehensive design-oriented
educational environment in Greece.
The collaboration between AKTO and Middlesex University began in
1991, making this the oldest collaboration between a Greek tertiary
education institution and a UK university. AKTO students are
automatically enrolled as Middlesex University students as
well.
"This arrangement is independently assessed by the British
Quality Assurance Agency in the United Kingdom, which has given
Middlesex University the highest possible rating for its teaching
and degree programmes, and for its national and international
partnerships, including this one at AKTO," said Dr, Butland.
UK universities received more than 600,000 applications from
Britain and the EU this year, a record number. The second-highest
area of interest after Law was Design. "More people than ever are
starting university this autumn" said David Willetts, UK
universities minister.
Enric Jardí was born in the mid 60s in Barcelona and studied
Graphic Design in Elisava, where he later taught. For the past
thirty years, he has been working in the field of visual
communication, not only in his personal studio but also elsewhere.
He founded the typographical team Type-Ø-Tones in 1991, he was the
director of Art Directors & Graphic designers Association
(ADG-FAD) from 2005 to 2009, while he has also been the head of
Μaster on Advanced Typography in Eina Academy, and at the same time
has been teaching at the Μaster's department in Ramon Llull
University.
Throughout his working life, he has published numerous books,
won several awards and influenced many designers worldwide. He was
invited to AKTO, where, on the 7th of July 2011, he gave a lecture
titled "What I did" (subtitled "And what I didn't. And what's
important. And what's not"). Thus, giving AKTO students and young
designers the chance to meet him in person, and ask for invaluable
advice in graphic design.
AKTO, in collaboration with Direction Publishing S.A., hosted an
interactive workshop titled "Brands: the Antidote to Crisis" on the
22nd of June 2011. Emeritus professor Malcolm McDonald, an
international marketing guru, presented his view on how the branded
products could act as a shield against the negative outcomes of
economic crisis and recession, in today's international market. He
explained in detail how philosophy and practice of Brand Marketing,
which adapts to a market changing continuously, could be helpful to
companies defending and retaining their profits, using their
already successful branded labels.