Sanjay Gupta, Vice-Chancellor of World University of Design (WUD), at a time when design is often regarded as a niche or Ornamental field strongly contends that design education ought to be acknowledged as an essential tool for creativity, human-centered development, and resolution of real-world problems. In his most recent essay, Gupta explains how design has gone from the periphery of Indian education and development policy to its core. 

Gupta first waxes nostalgic about how the design education curriculum in India has evolved dramatically in the last ten years. Originally limited to a few elite institutions, the design program is now found in more than 300 universities and 3,000 colleges nationwide. He notes that though early frameworks were set down by institutions such the National Institute of Design (NID), design courses were limited in their breadth and coverage up to recently. According to Gupta’s narrative, the founding of India’s first university only dedicated to design—WUD—in 2018 is fast changing the environment today. has helped in speeding this change by offering a systematic academic setting for expanding design disciplines. 

Gupta claims that a pivotal moment is the recognition in India’s National Education Policy 2020 that creative topics must be included in a comprehensive curriculum. Not just a subject choice or aesthetic discipline, design under NEP is a purposeful instrument for multidisciplinary thinking and problem-solving. Early on, according to Gupta, WUD anticipated and embraced several of NEP’s tenets including varied entry-exit routes, interdisciplinary elective courses, and the integration of sustainability. and social interaction within the syllabus. 

From their original roots in studios, sketching, product, and fashion design, design courses have developed to encompass more current domains including UI/UX as described by Gupta. Animation, game design, service design, strategic design, digital humanities Anticipating the present boom in the AVGC sector, he points out that WUD debuted animation and game design degrees in 2018, acknowledged as a national growth area. Similarly, fields like curation and interaction design, once secondary, now have a rigorous educational presence.

Gupta said that institutional changes have been complimentary with legislative changes. The University Grants Commission has officially acknowledged the status of design education as a distinct academic discipline; legislation for the National Institute Formalizing of Design (NID) and National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) has been reviewed. Because it is a full university rather than a separate institution, WUD may grant degrees in many design areas under one corporate umbrella. Gupta feels that for other design schools elsewhere, integrative model is the blueprint for the future. 

Gupta believes that one of the most helpful outcomes of this transformation is the increasing variety among students studying design. Design education has started to reach pupils from different locations, unconventional backgrounds, and small communities rather than just those attending elite city schools. Improved outreach, easier admissions processes, scholarships, and a better appreciation of the value of design have all helped to democratise this. 

But maybe the most obvious change is in the labor industry. According to Gupta, graduates of design are no longer confined to fashion houses or product companies. Design thinkers are in demand today across several sectors, including technology, public services, startups, governance, education, healthcare, and more. Among the jobs now much sought after are those of an experience strategist, service designer, creative technologist, and UX designer. His own placement data reveal this shift as graduates are creating companies, taking jobs in international locations, and getting great offers from major firms. 

Design education is becoming more intellectually and socially influential beyond the corporate world, according to Gupta. PhD programs in design are becoming more popular at universities, therefore enabling more emphasis on theory, research, and social repercussions. He points to the case of WUD’s efforts in the adaptive reuse of historic buildings supported by overseas organizations, where design education works as a Relationship between society, sustainability, and culture. 

Integration of business, technology, and design is one especially forward-looking element of Gupta’s technique. Gupta notes WUD’s hybrid BTech program in computer science and design, which blends immersive disciplines like AR/VR and AI with coding and user interface design. Asserts that this multidisciplinary method is crucial in the twenty-first century, when strict divisions among subjects are vanishing.

Gupta expects design education to become even more closely linked with urgent world problems like climate change, social fairness, digital transformation, and inclusive innovation in the future. He believes that India needs designers with expertise in public health, urban planning, educational policy, climate change adaptation, and administration. But to do this, colleges have to continuously invest in faculty, teaching techniques, corporate alliances, practical experience, and international cooperation. 

Gupta claims WUD has already helped to change expectations. WUD has become a reference point by redefining the scope of design, integrating policy thinking, responding to trends emerging, and fostering multidisciplinary and socially responsible initiatives. The expansion of design signals a cultural transformation in which creativity, problem-solving, and human-centric thinking currently in the Indian idea of education, development, and identity. 

Design is at the center now, not on the margins, Gupta notes at the conclusion. The course of India in the next century may very well be determined by the designers it cultivates now.