Million dollar ideas just a degree away

Whanganui Ucol's viability has been boosted by its Bachelor of Creative Industries degree, which is being offered for the first time this year. The three-year degree has attracted eight full-time students, aged from their mid 20 to 40s with varied workforce backgrounds. They will share some classes with Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, Glass diploma, Fashion Design degree and Computer Graphic degree students, a move which will make each of those courses more cost effective. Chair of the degree David Walker, a British architect, designer and specialist in innovation and new product development, is delighted with the initial response to the BCI The degree, he said, was aimed at students who had life experience and wished to expand their skills including ways of problem solving and thinking outside the square using traditional and new age technology. "Ideally we would like a first year intake of up to 14 BCI students, but eight is a good number to start with and we will take people who only want to do say one paper such as the creative industries or research and major project section," Mr Walker said. To do the BCI people did not have to have an art portfolio or academic qualifications as it was a course suitable for people from a range of backgrounds including all the trades, he said. "The BCI is for people who do not accept the norms, people with a pioneering spirit. Creativity is at the heart of business and the BCI is to help people see new opportunities and how to create new business ? new ways of thinking." Britain's 21-year-old student Alex Tew, who last year in less than half an hour came up with an idea which has made him more than one million dollars in about four months, was an example of what could be achieved by new ways of thinking, Mr Walker said. Tew's problem was lack of money and not having any decent or matching socks. This led him to write down on a notepad how to become a millionaire and the attributes the idea needed. These included being simple to set up and understand, a name to capture the imagination and something that could be set up quickly with no physical delivery required. Within 20 minutes he came up with the idea of selling pixels, the dots which make up a computer screen, as advertising space, costing a dollar per dot. The minimum purchase was $100 for a 10x10 pixel square to hold the buyer's logo or design. Clicking on that space takes readers to the buyer's website. Tew, who has now achieved his million dollar target, has said his success is to do with having faith in the subconscious mind. "The million-dollar target came first then I worked backwards, then I relied on some part of my brain to provide the answer," Tew said.