Design a fashionable life

NIFT admissions till Jan 16

Fashion is a booming industry and there are a wide range of opportunities that this industry is opening up to. The holistic development of students, with a combination of academic and extracurricular activities is an ongoing highlight of NIFT. We encourage students to incubate startups and give ideas. We feel that not just the field of engineering and medicine, but students can also look at fashion design as a career. - Dr N J Rajaram, Director NIFT

Hyderabad: NIFT, the premier institution for fashion technology, is under Ministry of Textiles, Govt of India. It is an autonomous institution, governed by NIFT Act 2006. It takes in undergraduates in six disciplines for its 4-year Bachelor Programmes (B.Des) - Accessory Design, Fashion Communication, Fashion Design, Knitwear Design, Leather Design and Textile Design.

Other than this, it has a B.F.Tech (Bachelor of Fashion Technology) programme in Apparel Production, a 4-year course and PG programmes viz, Master of Design (M.Des), Master of Fashion Management (MFM) and Master of Fashion Technology (M.F.Tech). A total of 35 seats are available for each course that the institute offers.

To pursue undergraduation in B.Des programmes an aspirant must have an intermediate or its equivalent and for technology courses like B.F.Tech, an aspirant must have an intermediate or its equivalent with MPC background. The post-graduation in management (MFM) is similar to MBA course where any graduate from any stream is eligible and to pursue post-graduation in M.F.Tech any graduate from B.Tech stream is eligible.

The online registrations for these courses were open from October 20, 2015 to January 10. Students can still register with late fee of Rs. 5000 for the courses till January 16. The admit card (only online) will be made available on January 21. The written entrance examination for all UG and PG courses will be held on February 14.

In an interaction with Young Hans, Director, NIFT, Dr NJ Rajaram said that the curriculum, teaching methodology and huge infrastructure sets apart the institution from others. The faculty is well qualified, well equipped and well reputed. At the Hyderabad centre, there are a total of 210 seats. At the national level, there are in all 2190 for undergraduates and 610 for postgraduates.

The course is a mix of both theoretical and practical aspects and at the end of the last semester, students intern at industries for a period of six weeks, and the evaluation is based on their end product submissions. Based on the academic performance, select students are even sent abroad for a period of 6-12 months as part of a study tour.

Adding more about the Hyderabad campus, Dr Rajaram said that it has an exclusive girls’ hostel. The entire campus is WiFi enabled, making it tech-friendly. Apart from guest faculty for a few subjects, experts and specialists from the industry too are invited from time to time and also members of professional clubs are called in to the campus to share their industry experiences.

85 per cent of the students are placed during campus interviews and a few move into setting up boutiques or start-off as entrepreneurs.Under its Continuing Education programme, short term courses of 3/6/12 months are offered to working professionals interested in a career in fashion technology.