Our education systems have become unable to bring students up-to-date with all the latest knowledge technologies and trends, partly because of institutional inertia and resistance to change, but mostly because change just happens too fast. Education should therefore be less focused on inert knowledge taken out of contemporary context, and more about elevating students to be true chameleons, able to understand, instantly learn from and adapt to the ever-changing, complex environments around them.

International Design Education, embodied by our latest initiative to bring Ecole Intuit Lab to Kolkata through our flagship institution Techno India University, relevantly answers most of the changes we need to see happen in our education systems. First, its intercultural nature between France and India brings the international complexity and intricacy that students need to comprehend and play with in our globalised economy. Moreover, design curricula inculcate the right dose of educational personalisation, creativity, and freedom of creation that each and every student should be able to access. This new international design campus and curricula will also enable our students to try and grow their skills on diverse, intercultural topics and materials. Partnering with a French design school is not a coincidental choice either: students will benefit from international standards in terms of professionalism and placement opportunities beyond the strong expertise and tie-ups that Techno India Group already has in the local, national, and international professional spheres.

As an addition to its existing portfolio of courses in engineering, business, architecture, law to mention a few, Techno India University perceives Design as the next logical evolutionary step to embrace complexity itself the way it advocates it for its students, and to achieve interdisciplinary education.

We also believe that design, through art, aesthetics, functionality and practicality, can bring immense additional value to local ecosystems which for now are lacking such educational programmes. Design innovation in a day-to-day context, if/when smartly executed, has the power to change mind-sets and behaviours and bring solutions to our 21st century’s social and environmental challenges.

We look forward to elevating mind-sets and skills, one student at a time, and eagerly wait for them to be change-makers at their turn!

MEGHDUT ROY CHOWDHURY & PAULINE LARAVOIRE

Global Operations Director & Sustainability Director, Techno India Group