Mangalayatan University (MU) will soon commence a two- year graduate course in Product Design Engineering. The Vice-Chancellor of MU announced this initiative after his academic team had two days of involved discussion with Shri Shashank Mehta, Head (Projects), National Institute of Design (NID) Ahmadabad.NID and MU have already signed a Memorandum of Understanding regarding this program.

NID is renowned worldwide for its excellence in design education and research. Functioning under the Ministry of Commerce and industry, it is playing an important role to strengthen design education in India. The U.S. magazine "Business Week” has listed NID in the world's 25 top European and Asian institutions.

According to Prof.Jain, the major objective of MU is to provide assistance to regional industry. Local small industries face open economy challenges due to the arrival of foreign products. Whether it is the lock industry of Aligarh or Agra’s leather industry or the bangle industry of Firozabad, all of them are experiencing pressure in the marketplace, be it in terms of growth, pricing or even sustainability. MU hopes that, by launching product design engineering and research work, it will be able to play a pivotal role in helping industries face these challenges.

Mr. Mehta said that MU’s variety of educational disciplines offers certain unique advantages. Along with engineering faculty from other streams like Management, Fine Arts and Journalism & Mass Communication will be involved in the project, which will enrich and enhance the overall scope of product designing. He said the course has already been prepared for NID product design engineering and NID will actively participate in training the faculty and building out the course at Mangalayatan University.