My short trip to Italy last week turned out, like those of so many others, to be a prolonged stay, much of which I spent queuing frustratedly for ways to get home, hook or by crook across Europe. As I write, I’m on a train to passing through Turin to Paris. But it could have been worse. Milan is not a bad place to be stranded, especially during Milan Design Week.

Having to spend more time there than I thought I went to the Milan Design Week exhibitions on offer in via Ventura and Zona Tortona. The via Ventura shows from the RCA, the Design Academy Eindhoven and the Scuola Politecnica di Design and also emergent groups such as Art book Milan, were experimental with both conceptual and practical outcomes. The work in the Zona Tortona was much more to do with the commercial outcomes of design (mostly furniture) with very polished displays including that of our own Tom Dixon who showed some new chairs he had designed, but his show was dwarfed by the big furniture and lighting manufactures such as Kartell. I was quite surprised by how ordinary much of this commercial stuff was even in italy who have seemed to have lost much of the design initiative and flair they were so famous for. If there was one country that seem to excel across the board it was the work from the Netherlands who seem to work with ease between the experimental and the commercial with some very smart young designers. Pleased to see that rapid prototyping was being use extensively in a whole range of products and especially l’artisan electronique, by Belgium’s Unfold.

However, the purpose of my trip had been to deliver a lecture at Politecnico de Milano on Ravensbourne’s transformation. I was very useful for me to gauge the international academic community’s response to the changes we are undergoing at Ravensbourne. It was interesting that support for our change was high, but perceived as an Anglo Saxon response (which it is) to European traditions of higher education. Closer to the American view of what HE is for, rather than the mid European concern with scholarship almost for its own sake. Much interesting discussion followed on the role of technology, in particular the evolution in product and information design from GUI (graphical user interface) to NUI (natural user interface ) – touch screen, with its emphasis upon gesture. Something we encourage our students to explore particularly in our BA (Hons) Design (Interactions) and MA/MSc Interactive Product Futures courses at Ravensbourne.

I’ve made my feelings known on the Digital Economy Bill and the outdated approach the Government is taking regarding the penalising of illegal file-sharing. Unfortunately, a greatly reduced version of the Digital Economy Bill was passed on Wednesday night in the Commons, focusing on these preventive and negative aspects of the original Carter bill, whilst eliminating much of the progressive Digital Britain agenda, including broadband for everyone anywhere as a democratic entitlement.

On a more positive note, I’m delighted to report that we have an anonymous donation of £1.55m towards the costs of the new building. And HEFCE has now agreed that funding for the original 100 additional student numbers awarded to us as part of our recent settlement covers the duration of study for each student. Our original concern was that we would receive this funding for 2010/2011 only. HEFCE has also announced its University Modernisation Fund intended to help institutions to generate efficiency savings and fund limited numbers of additional entrants. We are considering bidding for a small number of student places, but will have to seriously weigh up the impacts of this in the longer run.

And finally, next week, I’m off to Italy by invitation of the Politecnico di Milano. Politecnico di Milano is ranked as one of the most outstanding European universities in Engineering, Architecture and Industrial Design and a leading research institution. I will be speaking to a number of academics and business people there on the relocation of Ravensbourne. So good that our ambitious vision is generating interest in academic circles across the globe.