Jaipur: Strengthening further its portfolio of excellent higher education offerings, JK Lakshmipat University (JKLU) has launched its Institute of Design, which will offer Bachelors of Design (B.Des) degree, providing a lucrative avenue for the many high school graduates who have a passion for arts and design and dream of shaping their career in the domain.

The B.Des at JKLU is a 4-year full-time, graduate degree programme, recognized by UGC, Government of India. The Programme provides an opportunity for students to experience industry in their classroom, making them ready to create experiences for people once they complete the program.

To complement its programmes in Engineering, Technology and Business Management, the B.Des degree at the much acclaimed Jaipur-based academic institution will provide specialisations in product design, interaction design and interdisciplinary design.

“We are aiming to bring about a fresh, new, approach to design education, which is collaborative in nature and integrative in process. It is both unique and relevant for the neo-designer, somebody who is at-ease working in the studios, experimenting at the labs and in presenting at board rooms. To achieve this, we are re-imagining the curriculum to make way for new skills, new methods of working, and new pedagogy. The programmes are curated such that they can transform the students into designers who are future-ready and adaptive. Creating a new paradigm in design education, JK Lakshmipat University has set to break the conventional design ideology that works on aesthetics to step on towards a contemporary ideology revolving around sustainability and user experience,” says Prof. A Balasubramaniam, Dean, Institute of Design, JK Lakshmipat University while throwing light on the design education a student will get at the University.

The launch of the institute was marked by Dr. R.L. Raina, Vice Chancellor, JK Lakshmipat University where Mr. Jay Dutta, Sr Vice President-User Experience, MakeMyTrip Group, Bangalore, addressed the audience through Skype.

The inauguration ceremony has also been followed by the addresses of Mr. Abhimanyu Nohwar, Product Designer; Founder & Principal Designer, Kiba Design, Noidaand Sanjeev Bothra Educator & Researcher, Appropriate Design, Jaipur.

On the occasion of launch Mr. Asheesh Gupta, Pro Vice Chancellor, JKLU added that with experiential learning already at the core of its Institute of Engineering & Technology and Institute of Management, the introduction of the Institute of Design comes as an initiative that can bridge and fuse all the three disciplines. The design curriculum at JKLU sits at the cross roads of technology, business, society, culture and people. Designers, therefore, need to be aware, if not proficient in all the sectors. To do that, designers will be building a mind-set that is broad and agile, during the course.

Created by one of the most well-known names of the Indian design industry Prof. A. Balasubramanian, the design courses at JKLU ensure an academically-enriched yet industrially-relevant learning for its students joining in the academic year 2019.

The Institute promises a holistic development wherein they will be exposed to a collaborative approach of knowledge construction. The design curriculum at JKLU sits at the cross-roads of technology, business, society, culture and people. It is focused at making the students creative, mature, independent, empathetic, sensitive, conscious, resourceful and communicative designers.

Not only the students will share their learning journey, but also get an opportunity to be assessed by their peers, along with being evaluated by the industry experts in the end of each semester. While learning design at JKLU, the students will have the liberty to choose their own subjects, thus making them independent and in complete control of their programme.

The country today needs a new generation of user-centric and empathetic professionals who can look into the need of the consumers and bring it to reality, and JKLU is ideally placed to do this. JKLU aims to nurture and create sensitive designers, who can envision and accept the future, and not just become job-ready graduates. Hence, it has not only reimagined the design sphere, but has also reinvented it to suit the needs of the changing trends of the industry.

The B.Des programme at JKLU has been designed by one of the most known faces of Design in India with a good blend of academics, industry exposure and personal mentoring by industry professionals.

First Entrance test for Institute of Design at JK Lakshmipat University is scheduled on 2nd Feb 2019.