Design Institutes mull CAT like entrance test

National Institute of Design (NID), in collaboration with other design institutes in the country, is mulling introduction of a Design Aptitude Test (DAT) in the lines of the Common Aptitude Test (CAT) for students wishing to pursue design studies.

The institute has also started making efforts towards filing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) for the designs made by its students.

On the occasion of the second Indian Design Institute's Alliance (IDIA) meeting, to be held in December, NID will be initiating talks with other industrial and commercial design institutes to implement DAT in the academic year after next.

"The entrance exams held by design institutes are too advanced and expect candidates to know specific subjects in depth which is not always possible. In order to address this, we are advocating for a DAT, common for all design institutes in the country with focus on creativity, material manipulation, visualisation and story telling among others," said Darlie O Koshy, Director, NID.

The rising number of students applying for design studies has also been instrumental in making design institutes re-think their current intake policies.

"Last academic year, we received around 5100 applications and expect the coming academic session to see a jump of at least 20 to 30 per cent which only re-enforces the need to come out with a better entrance system for students, " added Koshy.

As part of its convocation, to be held in the first week of December, NID has initiated the India design Week, where a fair to project and market leading innovations in the design industry would be conducted.

The 'Design Idea Fair', according to Koshy is a means to encourage student designers and professionals to protect their designs using the IPR laws.

"Every year our students come out with more than 40 innovative designs in various faculties where most of them can be adapted immediately by corporates . In order to protect them, we have started filing the ideas to the IPR offices, which have come up across the country, " Bhavin Kothari, Head IPR cell, NID told Business Standard.

In the next one week, NID would be filing at least 15-20 student designs and 20 more in the next six months. The initial target of designs to be filed for IPR would more than 35 from the next year onwards, said Kothari.

The costs of filing the designs ranges around Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 depending on the fees charged by legal counsel which would be borne by NID.

At its R&D campus in Bangalore, NID would be launching two new programmes in the next academic year. The two PG programmes; one of Design for Retail Experience and Design for digital Experience with an intake of 15 students each would also see faculty participation from a host of corporates.