Notes from conversations with an un-informed journalist.
A few days ago I was having a twitter exchange with a journalist who had written about the need for India to have more Design schools. Actually the person is not a journalist but a doctor turned art appreciator / collector who is writing on design.
This journalist put up an article with the title that China has 400 design schools and India has only 2. The headline put me off so much that I decided to give her a lesson 101 on the state of design education in India.
You can read the article here: China has 400 design schools, India only 2.
The points that follow were a result of conversations with the ‘journalist’ , a few other designers, and myself.
It is unbelievable that a media house like the Times of India group, which runs the Economic Times (ET) business newspaper would care to publish an article which is so misinformed. ET is widely popular business newspaper and the impact of such a improperly informed research would be large.
Many people who commented on the article pointed out that India has more than just 2 design schools. Anyone interested in Design in India would tell you that there are many more. It was left to the reader to guess which are the 2 design schools. There are more than 10 design schools, in India; which I know is still low, but still the article should not be so misleading.
So me and another friend set out to find the person who had written the article. Got to know the twitter handle of the person and hence followed a twitter exchange in which we got to know the further misconceptions that people have about the Design education in India.
I mentioned the few that are there more than just the 2 designs schools in India.
Me: “To help u better in next article here they are: IDC (IIT bombay), DoD (IIT guwahati), MDes (IIT Kanpur), IDDC (IIT Delhi), DJ Academy (Coimbatore), MIT Pune, Symbiosis Inst of Design, IILM school of Design (Gurgaon), Design Institute of India (Indore), Srishti School of Design (Bangalore), Sushant school of Design (Gurgaon), the various NIFT across India, Pearl Academy of Fashion (New Delhi) to name a few.”
When we pointed out this, the tweet we got was that “her” criteria to decide that there were only two design schools was that the schools had to be standalone (have a separate campus on its own) and that it had to have an encompassing curriculum and only NID and Srishti fill that criteria. (J: Journalist)
J: “Most schools listed specialise in one field of design. NID & Shrishti are two that have an encompassing curriculum.”
I then replied stating that, for your kind information there are atleast 10 design schools in India that are NOT specializing in just one field. This just showed how ill-informed the person was
Me: “And these institutes whose names I just tweeted to you, are the ones that DO NOT specialize in only ONE domain of design as u say.”
Me: “If I were to send the list of such inst where there is only ONE specialization, we could reach the number to atleast 50! Atleast do some basic research before you write an article in a newspaper like ET . You are letting down yourself and the paper.”
I also sent out a tweet to the paper carrying the article.
Me: “1 side U want to Evangelize Design, spread info about Design in India and then on other side, @EconomicTimes feeds non-researched articles”
On the point of the standalone school, I then mentioned that going by that logic, many Design programs cannot call itself Design schools. To name a few are the Stanford Design Program, KAIST design school, IIT Chicago’s Design program, CMU’s Design school etc.
With the Government of India asking major universities in India to open up Design schools, within it and not as a Standalone school, the argument falls flat.
Me: ” U should perhaps check how many of those 400 Schools in CHINA that u so proudly wrote, r STANDALONE design schools!”
Does a Design school have to be independent to flourish?
In the times, when the emphasis is on the Multidisciplinarity, isn’t a Design school within the campus of another Technology Institute / University better placed? A multi-disciplinarity approach towards Design is essential to tackle the wicked problems that we are facing and will also raise the level of innovation. I was having the discussion with an IIM alumnus friend and we were discussing on how more and more Management professionals are also interested in
I head a French Design school program in India which runs within the premises of another Design and Arts school.
At a startup I earlier worked, the design team worked closely with the technology team and the discussions were always fruitful and more enlightening for both.
So why not inculcate the culture of cross-discipline interactions in Design Schools. One way of doing that is to locate it within the campus of a larger Institute. That is precisely why I love the Design Schools at the IITs (IDC, DoD, IITK, IITD). But its sad to see them not churning out stuff to the potential.
Anyone wanting to do an article on the Design Education in India should atleast referenec to this site, that lists down the design schools in India. It also saddens me to see the low quality of Journalism in India as well, but let me just stick to design for now.
A note to Designers in India
Please write more. Let’s spread the word on Design in India more. A lot people take us for granted and think they can get away by writing anything. We need to be Design Evangelists too, and the need of the hour is now more than ever before.
