Can you really teach creativity? Is it not an innate spontaneous quality?

Is it not some ineffable spirit that simply is, and cannot be forced?

But a study of creativity would say otherwise. And a pioneer pair of experienced teachers in Cambridge University has set up a study course that puts creativity at its centre.

Creativity is excitingly immanent – perfect for a personal journey of self-discovery. The course on offer is dense with information but paradoxically open to each individual who signs up to tread a path through what seems like a labyrinthine world of complexity.

If anyone can do this, it must be Dr. Abigail Docherty and Dr. Alex Carter two dynamic academics with a zest for life and a belief in the importance of their subject, so long under exposed. Their mission is to make Creativity with a large C a subject with the potential to change lives.

Ideas tumble out as they speak. Both of them are infused with a kaleidoscope of ideas garnered from fresh thinkers all over the world. Somehow Alex and Abigail distil them into a purposeful credo,’ creativity is possible for everyone and its limits should never be curtailed or circumscribed.

It is a subject that has international traction

“ In China the courses are 4 years long. Incredibly – and counter to the rigidity with which they’re often associated – the Chinese educators value and encourage this progressive study’ explains Alex “Their methods are rather old-fashioned ‘ adds Abigail ‘ still teaching with a white board. But nevertheless when interpreted by British educators, their ideas are sound.”

California of course is on the frontier of creativity classes.

‘ They realize the need to understand the changing world we live in and be ready to adapt to it. Adaptability is one of the most important professional skills we can learn today’ says Abigail ‘and that begins with a capacity to be creative’

Michaelangelo’s ‘Creation’ - the Renaisssance is one field of study in the course which takes students through the two thousand year history of ideas and theories of creativity.

So why Cambridge? The Undergraduate Diploma in Creativity, History and Philosophy’ is a yearlong course. It extracts the creativity in history and science and a range of studies in between

“This new course’ Abigail explains ‘will teach all of us to be better researchers, thinkers and activists’. As a playwright with many national awards to her name, Abigail can confidently demonstrate the springs of imagination and originality needed for a creative approach. Alex is a philosopher, and that questioning discipline – the variety he favours is a continental open enquiring model, will inform the spirit and design of this new area of study. Layered over these two strands will be courses in psychology, natural science, and material science. There will be creative writing and psychotherapy sessions, The entire course is at the vanguard of adult education – away from the silo approach and into a realm of connectivity now taking hold all over the world.

In this spirit there are no exams but the course does award a proper 60 credit Diploma. So no marking - but out of the fifteen areas of study will emerge a personal assignment, one a term, with a generous amount of detailed feedback. In fact the entire course appears to be loaded with tutors and mentors who will help with the final of a self-reflective essay at the very end.

The course will look at creativity from every angle over two weekends for each of the three-terms – alongside a strong stream of distance learning. Applications come from people across society. Abigail and Alex intend to enhance career prospects with a range of really good skills of analysis and adaptability. Yet they do not rule out anyone who simply wishes to extend their own mind in the company of a small cadre of co-students in the setting of Madingley Hall, the Jacobean mansion outside Cambridge, the centre of its continued education programmes.

‘The focus of this course is the evolution of ideas. How we got here and what we can learn from it. We’ll be running through two fascinating millennia of creative thought that brings us right up to the present day,’ explains Abigail

Yet what is so striking about the course is the belief in the power of every individual to explore his or her identity, thinking and prejudices and adopt a different approach. This is not, the course designers say, just for those in the creative industries ,

‘Being able to think creatively in process driven environments’ explains Alex ‘ is an incredibly helpful way to evolve ideas ‘

For more about this unique course visit; www.ice.cam.ac.uk/ug-dip-creativity