NID nodal agency for design entrance exam

Country's premier design institute, National Institute of Design (NID) will act as the nodal agency for conducting the first National Entrance Exam for Design (NEED) in January 2009.

"NID has signed MoUs with four of its consortium partners -- IILM Gurgaon, Pearl Academy, Wigan and Leigh and Sristhi -- to hold NEED which is scheduled for January 2009," NID Officiating Director Akhil Succena told PTI today. The Institute has fourteen consortium partners for various purposes, of which these four have signed MoUs with it, while two others are contemplating doing so, Succena said.

With this arrangement, students will have the facility of taking design institute entrance exams, based on the lines of CAT conducted by management schools, in one go thus saving time. It also simplifies the paper checking process for institutes, he added.

 

NEED will be conducted on the lines of CAT as a pilot project, Succena said. The move to centralise the entrance is being seen as a pre-cursor to holding design institute exams online from 2010-11 session on the lines of CAT and with the intention of cutting down costs of holding entrances, he said.

"We are exploring the possibility of holding online exams for students seeking admission in design institutes, after reviewing NEED. The online project will gather pace depending on the response," Succena said. Presently, NID and other design institutes conduct entrance exams seperately, which are followed by written exams and campus interviews.

"Once NEED takes off, written exams at the institute level can be done away with which is what we are aiming at," Succena said. On an average between four-five thousand students across the country take the entrance exam conducted by NID to seek admission in under and postgraduate courses. The number is expected to go up this year, sources said.