Shoring their presence in the global design firmament, two Indian institutes have powered their way into the best global design schools list for the second year in a row.
NEW DELHI: Shoring their presence in the global design firmament with their academic programmes and consultancy works, two Indian institutes have powered their way into the best global design schools list for the second year in a row.
Industrial Design Centre of the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai and Ahmedabad's National Institute of Design are among the 60 schools named in the second annual survey of the best design schools in the world compiled by Businessweek magazine, which is part of the McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.
With 62 graduate students, the Industrial Design Centre of the IIT, Mumbai is a member of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design. "IIT's Industrial Design Centre takes a broad and holistic approach, combining mandatory art and marketing components into an industrial design course," the report says.
The top employers for the centre's students are Ashok Leyland, Honeywell, Tata Motors, Ford, Motorola and Microsoft.
Further, Businessweek notes that "students and professors both do consultancy work and sponsored projects for Mumbai industry, and the Institute hosts conferences on innovation for business leaders from around the world."
The National Institute of Design is described as a design institution with strong links with industry. "NID offers students the chance to work with companies on class design projects and on rapid prototyping through its consulting arm, the Design Vision Centre. In addition, NID now offers a degree program in strategic design," the magazine says.
Moreover, it has academic partnerships with ENSCI (France), RCA (London), Shenkar (Israel) and has business experience after working with big names like Fiat, GM and Whirlpool.
It has about 650 students pursuing graduate and undergraduate programmes. The top employers for NID's students are Suzuki, Whirlpool and Infosys.
The list includes joint programmes among business, engineering and design schools as well as revamped curricula within traditional design programmes. The focus is also on curricula and employment prospects for programmes from respective schools.
"Increasingly, CEOs themselves see sustainability as fitting well with strategies for market expansion and growth. So they are racing about looking for designers, managers, and strategists who are knowledgeable about building sustainable products and implementing processes," an accompanying report says.
The most number of schools (29) are from the United States including Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard Business School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. England is represented by four schools that include Royal College of Art and Said Business School of University of Oxford.
There are two institutions from France -- ENSCI Les Ateliers and Strate College, which are based in Paris.
An international panel of 22 expert design and brand consultants and academics from business and design schools along with executives from top firms came together to shortlist the colleges in the list. Later, interviews were conducted with professors, students and alumni from the recommended names before making the final list.
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