The design shop at NID Ahmedabad

New Delhi, Sept. 8: India’s premier design school has requested the Centre to expedite the process of allowing it to offer degrees in place of diplomas to students from the 2009 academic session.

Frustrated by bureaucratic delays, the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, has written to the human resource development ministry seeking urgent action on the request it first made two years ago, institute and ministry sources said.

“It is frustrating when you make a request and nothing happens on it for two years. We want things to be in place for us to offer degrees from the next academic session. This is crucial for the growth of the NID and for design as a subject in India,” director Darlie Koshy said from Ahmedabad.

Considered India’s top design school, the NID in 2006 asked for deemed university status, which would allow it to offer undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD degrees instead of the diplomas it currently offers.

The institute was hopeful of receiving the required approval in time for the 2007 academic session, the sources said. However, it is still waiting.

In the same period, HRD ministry officials admit, dozens of private institutes that are yet to establish a name for themselves have been granted deemed university status.

The elite institute selects students through a design aptitude test. This year, the NID admitted 79 students to its four-year undergraduate course — Graduate Diploma Programme in Design — including those chosen through the OBC quota.

Around 200 students were selected for the two-year postgraduate course — Post Graduate Diploma Programme in Design. At present, the institute offers fellowships in addition to these courses, but cannot offer doctoral programmes till it is granted deemed university status.

The HRD ministry has reacted to the NID letter by asking the University Grants Commission — the agency that needs to officially examine demands for deemed university status — to urgently accede to the request, ministry officials said.

“We appreciate the concerns raised by the NID. It is a premier institution and deserves deemed university status. But the UGC needs to complete its formalities,” a senior higher education official said.

A UGC team is required to visit the NID campus to survey the facilities and teaching standards under guidelines for granting deemed university status.

“Once the UGC visit is completed, the rest (of the process) can be expedited. We have asked the UGC to visit the NID soon,” the ministry official said.

Koshy said the NID was keen that the UGC complete its visit by October, when the admission process for the 2009 academic session begins.

“If the UGC team visits by the time the admission process for 2009 begins, we can plan accordingly to grant degrees from that batch of students entering the institute. We are not talking about just replacing the word diploma with degree. The course may need to be accordingly restructured,” the director said.

Deemed university status would also allow the NID to develop with other universities joint programmes in diverse fields of design that the institute is currently unable to touch, Koshy said.

“University-to-university collaboration would help us develop programmes in architecture design, for instance. For design to grow as a subject in India, we need to explore design in myriad other fields of engineering and technology,” he said.