Views of Dr. Sanjay Gupta - VC, WUD on UGC's latest stance at accepting

“Running an institute that has creativity at its core, I am extremely elated with the latest draft guidelines laid out by UGC. In the art, architecture & design domain, It is not just a significant development at bringing students to terms with knowledge based on practice and making their learning experiential but is essential in nurturing design aspirants to be industry-ready. At any juncture in our academic lives we all face a wide lapse between theory and what actually exists; which is why the possibility of bringing in experts with enriching experience in a domain as ‘Professors of Practice’ raises scope for chiseling out the best in students.”

He further adds, “At WUD we ensure multiple and frequent workshops so as to bring students to terms with what they know and what they’re expected of in the industry. Any good design education curriculum will need to be augmented by practical knowledge and nitty-gritties that don’t come handy via books and journals. First hand experiences of design practitioners, artists, weavers, craftsmen, and industry professionals ought to make a strong impression in the minds of aspirants as they idolize them in their hearts. Even otherwise, design being a new field of higher education in India, masters and doctoral level education is almost unheard of. The top two design institutions of the country i.e. NID & NIFT were diploma awarding till recently. Meeting UGCs generic faculty norms is near-impossible in this young but emerging field. With this new value intervention made at higher education levels, we reckon that we have some newfound vested powers that can be deployed to raise bars and up the level of our students exponentially. This is a game changer and will give an edge to Indian institutes to prepare their pupils as per global standards.”