Updated on: Monday, October 08, 2012
The National Institute of Design (NID) will soon be declared a Centre of Excellence through an Act of Parliament , bringing it on par with the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).
Pradyumna Vyas, director, NID, said, "The institute has been providing contextual and cross-disciplinary education and our students have done well both nationally as well as internationally , but till now, we were just awarding postgraduate diplomas. NID will be able to award Bachelor's , Master's and PhD degrees after it has been declared as a centre of excellence. Many steps have been taken by the ministry of commerce and industry to implement the recommendations envisaged in the National Design Policy."
The process of declaring NID a centre of excellence was set in motion around two years ago. There is a growing need of excellent designers and so to attract students from all over India, four new NID campuses will be set up — Jorhat, Hyderabad, Bhopal and Kurukshetra. These campuses will be functional in 2017, as per the 12Five-Year Plan.
"We have acquired 30 acres of land in Jorhat, Hyderabad and Bhopal, while 20 acres of land in Kurukshetra, where these campuses will be set up with a capacity of 500 students in Jorhat, 1,000 in Hyderabad, 500 in Bhopal and Kurukshetra, each. These campuses will serve as catalysts in furthering the design needs of industries , by treating the needs of the regional industries — small, medium, village or cottage. They will also attract students from different parts of India and bring quality design education to them."
Four broad areas will be taught — industrial design, communication design , textile and apparel design and IT integrated design. Initially Rs 550 crore have been invested in setting up these campuses.