The Higher Education Review

According to media reports, the fine arts education sector in the US amounts to more than $6 Bn with more than 17 thousand institutions. Students from all across the world have started going to the US for higher education in art and design. Many of these institutes have emerged within the last decade in the US and all of them have implemented technological innovations to create best in class programs for their students.

Institutions have witnessed these changing trends, and some have successfully achieved the highest standards for an art and design education. Savannah College of Art and Design is an institution in this sector that has done proper technology integration throughout its top ranked degree programs. The university has gained international recognition with students coming to pursue these undergraduate and graduate programs from 115 countries.

Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) was founded in 1978 by SCAD president and founder Paula Wallace. The university wanted to provide degree programs not previously available in the Southeastern U.S., and create a specialized professional art and design college to attract students from across the United States and abroad. The curriculum was established with dual goals of innovative education and effective career preparation for students.

Today, with locations in Savannah and Atlanta, Georgia, and Lacoste, France as well as online via SCADnow, SCAD adheres to these goals, as the university under Wallace’s guidance continues to have unprecedented growth.

Standing Out
SCAD offers more than 40 degree programs across B.F.A., M.A., and M.F.A. disciplines, including 21 STEM programs. Class sizes at SCAD are small, allowing each student the opportunity to receive individual attention. Faculty members have distinguished backgrounds in their fields.

The international faculty and student body come from all 50 states and more than 100 countries. English as a Second Language program and dedicated international student services staff are available to assist international students with the adjustment to university life in the United States.

As the University of Creative Careers, SCAD is dedicated to preparing students for professional lives. To better understand the career paths of recent graduates, SCAD's office of institutional assessment conducted a study of Spring 2021 alumni using a multistep process. As the key finding of the study, 99 percent of reporting graduates were employed, pursuing further education, or both within 10 months of commencement. The SCAD office of Career and Alumni Success is a resource not only for current students, but a lifelong expedient to ensure that alumni continue to thrive in their professional lives.

SCAD is proud to feature unique and progressive degree programs that prepare students for the working world of tomorrow. These degree programs include Business of Beauty and Fragrance; Creative Business Leadership; Design for Sustainability; Immersive Reality; Luxury and Brand Management; Social Strategy and Management; User Experience (UX) Design; and User Experience Research (UXR). These degree programs are tailored with sensitivity to business and design challenges from local to the global, and are taught by faculty with extensive experience in these fields. “Our faculty of more than 700 professors leverage their professional experience and valuable networks to teach students how to succeed in today’s ever-changing world.

Wielding real-world experience, these extraordinary leaders help students develop relevant skills in preparation for creative careers. For example, Meloney Moore, associate dean of the De Sole School of Business Innovation at SCAD, has previous experience as a leader at Estée Lauder that helped her pioneer the university’s business of beauty and fragrance major, which is now the fastest-growing major at SCAD,” states Jenny Jaquillard, AVP of SCAD Admission.

SCADamp is a professional presentation studio that prepares creatives to amplify their stories through verbal, visual, and

interpersonal communication. Guided by three essential elements of professional communication—speak, visualize, connect—SCADamp empowers students to amplify their personal narrative and capitalize on careermaking, peak-performance moments. SCAD is committed to facilitating connections between students and alumni and prospective employers at the annual SCAD Career Fair, where more than 100 companies including Disney, Dreamworks Animation, and Lululemon Athletica connect with the next generation of designers at SCAD.

SCAD is also proud to produce the popular virtual series Guests and Gusto, where leading cultural voices speak about their professional experiences, helping students expand their network.

"SCAD offers more than 40 degree programs across B.F.A., M.A., and M.F.A. disciplines, including 21 STEM programs"

Future Endeavours
SCAD is committed to providing an academic experience aligned with the requirements and expectations of evolving global industries. In January 2023, SCAD opened the Deloitte Foundry, a first-of-its-kind, preeminent design, research, and innovation studio at SCAD Savannah.

Since 2019, Deloitte has collaborated closely with SCADpro, providing hundreds of SCAD students the opportunity to create design solutions for the most pressing issues facing government and public sector organizations. At the Deloitte Foundry, inventive SCAD students will continue to advance groundbreaking creative solutions for these complex technological challenges.

The future of SCAD is manifested in the work of its students and alumni. Notable alumni include Indian designers and SCAD alumni Utharaa L. Zacharias (M.F.A., furniture design, 2017) and Palaash Chaudhary (M.A., industrial design, 2017) founders of the collaborative design studio, soft-geometry; art director and interactive design leader for Apple global marketing and communications group Mark Manalaysay (B.F.A., advertising, 2012); and fashion powerhouse Christopher John Rogers (B.F.A., fashion, 2016) whose designs have been worn by Beyoncé, Michelle Obama, and Vice President Kamala Harris. “Rest assured that the next generation of global design excellence is on the way from SCAD”, concludes Jaquillard.