Designing Design Education for 21st Century India Contexts + Concerns + Challenges. author of

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1 Designing Design Education for 21st Century India Contexts + Concerns + Challenges by DR. DARLIE KOSHY author of

2 The approach to design education in the post independent India had been Crafts and Skills oriented set very much in an apprenticeship mode whereas today Design has to break boundaries and discover the merging areas and the leading edge of various domains and their interfaces.

3 Indian Context Design Education & National Economic Development India is on a steady economic growth path as it marches forward in the 21st century. It has been indicated by several studies that a country which embraces Design as a tool for accelerated economic development, also creates a very competitive economy with sustainable advantages, while at the same time fulfilling consumer needs with creative products and services that the people regard as their own.

4 Indian Context Design Education & National Economic Development Design development through an integrated strategic approach for upgrading Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs) to create a global presence and recognition of India s widespread entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen.

5 Indian Context Design Education & National Economic Development Another focus for design in development is in the area of services both public and private wherein design intervention could potentially have a positive impact on the lives of millions in India.

6 Indian Context Design Education & National Economic Development It is expected that general awareness resulting from sensitization of a growing critical mass, would induce a more informed design sense and act a much needed catalyst to also promote design as a career option among the young and youth of India.

7 Global Context Design Education and Eco-system Evolution Design education and the eco-system evolve in three distinct phases, as experience of several developed economies has shown: PHASE 1 : Catalysed primarily by a basic compulsory and thereafter optional design education programme alongside a very aggressive Faculty / training of trainers development programme especially in the context of Arts / Crafts programmes to embrace consumer centric industrial & communication design.

8 Global Context Design Education and Eco-system Evolution PHASE 2 : Accelerated by improvements in the quality front and enhanced capacity to create innovations amongst the existing design professionals and community. PHASE 3: This is a phase that evolves differently in different countries and cultures, but is usually marked by consumer centric design processes accompanied by creation of indigenous designs reflecting tradition and culture and a higher sense of aesthetics.

9 Challenges of Demand & Supply There is a strong case for scaling up the number of qualified design professionals and it is estimated that the Indian economy at the current rate of growth will be able to absorb about 15,000 to 25,000 design professionals and large number of design technicians and skilled technical personnel each year.

10 Challenges of Demand & Supply To meet the challenge of shaping more designers, existing and new schools will have to learn to manage scale so far it has been more of scope and niche. There is also a pressing need for basic design education in ITIs* and polytechnics, schools, colleges, engineering and management programmes as well specialized institutions.

11 Designing Design Education for 21st Century India QUALITY vs QUANTITY The first decade of the 21st Century has shown that it is the context that defines and redefines designs which conceptualise products, systems, and also arbiters culture and emotions. Although, India is on an upsurge now, in the past, the country was rather content being a protected economy and by and large gave creativity, innovations and original designs a miss.

12 Designing Design Education for 21st Century India Industrial design education in India when it took shape in late 50s and early 60s was heavily influenced by Bahaus and Ulm traditions and the education continued to be guided by form follows function dictum and strangely was boundaried and protected from the commercial and mass production system though the very essence of Industrial design is mass manufacturing and marketing.

13 Designing Design Education for 21st Century India CHANGE & TRANSFORMATION In a decade of rather massive and often disruptive changes and metamorphosis ( ), technology driven education infrastructure, initiation of post graduate programmes, setting up of new campuses (Bangaluru, Ghandinagar) and above all a massive effort towards mobilizing public opinion about design and initiating new disciplines for creating encounters with other knowledge streams and the advent of a National Design Policy in 2007 ushered in a paradigm shift in Indian design education and the scene as a whole.

14 Designing Design Education for 21st Century India FOCUS ON SKILLS The Hon ble Indian Prime Minister s Skill Development Mission and the increasing efforts being made on skills development and women empowerment by the Central & State Governments indicate the gravity of the National Deficit of a multitude of Skills including designing, modelling etc.

15 Designing Design Education for 21st Century India DESIGN MEETS TECHNOLOGY The dynamics of globalization and its socio-economic consequences have prompted educators and thinkers to critically appraise the role of design in enhancing and delivering the Quality of Life in a more accessible, equitable and inclusive manner.

16 Designing Design Education for 21st Century India MAINSTREAMING INDIAN DESIGN EDUCATION Design education must start with a broad based general awareness of the principles, nature and utility of good design, demonstrated as an aspirational creative problem solving skill and enduring value in all students of class 10 plus across India.

17 Designing Design Education for 21st Century India DESIGN CURRICULUM AND INTERFACES WITH OTHER DISCIPLINES Another fundamental and important step is to blend technical educational streams in engineering, medicine and other professional courses with the envelope of design.

18 Towards a Robust Education Design Policy framework for India There is a proven need to take design awareness at school and UG level immediately. There is also a sharp rationale to create special design education institutions both general and sectoral ones in conjunction with industry to address key concerns of different industries as in the case of Transportation and Automobile design.

19 Towards a Robust Education Design Policy framework for India MULTI-TIERED APPROACH TO SPREAD OF DESIGN EDUCATION In order to provide a holistic and innovative impetus to design education, it needs to have a trans-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary approach, drawing from engineering, technology, arts, business processes and humanities and the following tiers will provide a more broad based design resources including thought designers, designers, design technicians and the like.

20 Towards a Robust Education Design Policy framework for India GOING FORWARD The onus is increasingly on Design Education to create Gen Next designers and design managers for emerging economies like India who are different in kind and degree Designing design education has thus become a priority not only in India but also in other emerging and developed economies to manage the present from the future.