Opened in September 2020, UCA’s Institute for Creativity and Innovation (ICI) in Fujian, China is a specialist creative higher education institution established and operated in partnership with Xiamen University. The Institute presents a unique opportunity for students based in China to benefit from UCA's – and the UK’s – world-renowned expertise in both creativity and teaching.

ICI students develop skills that are essential to adapting in a rapidly changing world: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. At ICI, students learn and apply these skills within the context of design, developing foundational design skills that can be applied across all design disciplines, along with discipline-specific design skills in Digital Media Arts, Environmental Design, or Visual Communication Design. Successful graduates of our programs will be well equipped to offer creative solutions to design problems at local, national, or international levels.

ICI courses maintain links with related programs at our sister campuses in the UK, and creative industry organizations worldwide. Guest lecturers from around the world, along with local and international industry partnerships offer our students inside access to the latest developments in design.

ICI programmes meet the high standards of the UK higher education system and apply UCA’s leading pedagogical approaches to creative education. Learning and teaching at ICI are focused on practical creative problem solving based in industry-related projects. We aim to graduate agile and resilient design professionals who will be competitive in the job market or postgraduate programmes.