Ten Otago Polytechnic Design students are off on the journey of a lifetime to work on collaborative projects with students in Shanghai, China.

Communication Design student, Jack Weily, was ecstatic when he was accepted to go.

“I’ve collaborated with others around the world, but never where I’ve been the exchange student!  This is a reverse role, and it’s going to be such a good experience.”

The group has been awarded the prestigious Prime Minister’s Scholarships for Asia (PMSA) and will embark in May for the truly international design metropolis.

The Fashion and Communication Design students will travel to three Chinese institutional partners over six weeks, visit design studios in the city of Shenzhen, and attend China’s Graduate Fashion Week in Beijing with their Shanghainese colleagues.

Fashion student, Brittany Cadogan, is thrilled with the opportunity.

“It’s such a great opportunity.  Not many people can say they’ve done this!  I’m really grateful for the funding that allows us to do this.

Doctor Margo Barton, Otago Polytechnic’s Fashion Design Professor, is delighted.

“These Prime Minister’s Scholarships will create so much opportunity for our students.  In the fashion industry, you hardly ever work by yourself, so it’s really important to learn how to engage with different people.  I hope this will have an impact on the design industry in the long-term – these relationships will have meaning well into the future,” she says.

The six-week trip will constitute a 15-point paper, and will include all aspects of fashion and communication design. 

“We’ll be focussing on sustainability – not just for educating our students, but also including students from the Shanghai Universities as well” she says.

To wrap up their visit, the students have been invited to create their own pop-up display as part of the Dunedin City Council and Otago Polytechnic collaborated exhibition “Anything Could Happen”.  This is being held at the Yu Gallery in the Yu Yuan Gardens - one of Shanghai’s most visited tourist destinations.