JSAA has a unique externship program that allows its industry partners to offer courses for credits, says Prog. Director

Program Director Azad Ali at Jindal School of Art and Architecture speaks in-depth about the origins of the institute in an interview with Shiksha.com. He discusses in great depth the numerous programmes that are available, the application process, and the selection criteria, among other things. Ali also talks about various key differentiating factors that helps the institute stand out among other institutes offering similar programmes.

Professor Ali holds experience of over 19 years in Higher Education. He has worked with multiple prestigious organizations, namely Indian Institute of Arts and Design, Pearl Academy, ICFAI University, karOX technologies, Picasso Animation College and others.

Read the complete interview in detail.

Q: Tell us a brief about Jindal School of Art and Architecture

A: Jindal School of Art & Architecture is a unique multidisciplinary school that promotes the best of global pedagogy in the fields of planning, architecture, development, design, and sustainability. Run by academics trained at some of the best universities around the world, the school is focused on its most vital asset – the students. It aims to revolutionize the philosophy, methods, and processes of teaching available in the field and offered in the country today, and architects, historians, engineers, geographers, lawyers, artists, and conservationists work in unison here, providing a nuanced but rigorous grounding to students which opens up frontiers of their imagination. Project-based learning prepares the students for real-life problems and makes them industry-ready. This is achieved by allowing them to design their own curriculum, helping them to learn by doing, using cities and villages as their classrooms, learning by doing, and adopting a model of using cities and villages as their classrooms. The school, further, nurtures a deep reading of key discourse texts, in its commitment to developing students as critical thinkers.

Q: What makes Jindal School of Art and Architecture stand out from the other Institutes?

A: What makes Jindal School of Art and Architecture stand out with respect to other Architecture and Design Schools are:

1. Global faculty: Jindal School of Art and Architecture has faculty who are trained and have taught at the best schools of design and architecture in the world. Jindal School of Art and Architecture has the highest number of faculty across any design school in India of faculty who are trained internationally and from the top 50 institutions of design and architecture in the world, including, Cornell, Harvard, Purdue, Oxford, Cincinnati, and Politecnico di Milano among others.
2. Major-minor combination degree: Jindal School of Art and Architecture is the only school of design and architecture in this country that offers its students the ability to do a major-minor combination. Students at Jindal School of Art and Architecture can thus create over 50 such combinations.
3. Flexible and customizable curriculum: Jindal School of Art and Architecture is the only school of design and architecture in the country which allows its students to customize their curriculum to suit their learning needs. Students have tremendous flexibility on when and which courses to opt for.
4. Live project-based Atelier: Jindal School of Art and Architecture is the only school of design and architecture in the country where after their first semester students work with live clients, consultants, and other stakeholders to produce the built environment. The result is that students learn from and learn how to deal with real-life situations becoming completely industry-ready in the process.
5. Externship Program: Jindal School of Art and Architecture has a unique externship program that allows its industry partners to offer courses for credits to Jindal School of Art and Architecture students during the academic semester. So it is a work with industry while you learn to program.
6. Global Classroom program: At Jindal School of Art and Architecture, students have a choice of multiple types of international experience. These range from a semester abroad, co-taught classrooms, semester exchanges, short-term study abroad, world cities travel, and extension and articulation programs.

Q: About the inception of Jindal School of Art and Architecture, various courses/specializations offered

A: The school was launched in 2018 as a part of O.P. Jindal Global University, the #1 private university in the country according to the QS University Ranking System. JGU is already recognized as an Institution of Eminence by the Government of India. The programs offered at JSAA are 5 year BArch program started in 2018, a 4-year BDes Interior, BDes Community & Urban Development launched in 2020 & a unique 3+1-year BA (Hons.) Built Environment Studies was launched in 2018 for non-STEM students who want to study architecture.

Teaching methodology

Jindal School of Art and Architecture follows several innovative teaching methods. They range from city-based learning to multiple guest lectures. Some of the highlights are: THE CITY IS MY STUDIO learning through observation, documentation, and action. Cities become the studio, where students learn and gather practical experience in problem-solving. The city helps them to understand the complicated interrelationship between man and the built environment better CROSS-DISCIPLINARY DISCOURSE An interdisciplinary subject like Society and Culture takes upon critical anthropological discussions on human society. Many such unique interdisciplinary seminars such as the land question, modern South Asia, sex of design, etc. form an integral part of Jindal School of Art and Architecture’s cross-disciplinary pedagogy MASTER-APPRENTICE MODEL Jindal School Art and Architecture brings to life, the long-forgotten guild system, of an expert master, closely monitoring and teaching the apprentice, the art of making. Hence, our design studios are called Ateliers - where we make our students, the master of one thing, not a jack of all trades! CALIBRATING ACADEMIC WRITING The first-year students undergo an inductive course into research writing, conducted by experts from the JGU Centre for Language Studies. This helps them to bridge the vacuity in academic writing which is not a part of the Indian high school curriculum. REVIEWS ARE FORMATIVE and SUMMATIVE Reviews and juries at Jindal School of Art and Architecture are not meant to judge students. They are inherently constructive and help students to perform better. Even the grading system follows this methodology and ethos. EXPERT GUEST LECTURES Every Wednesday, Jindal School of Art and Architecture invites an expert of the built environment and human centric cultures such as food, festivals and cross-border relations, to talk about their works - both ongoing as well as published research. This inspires our students to connect the dots and develop newer inquiries.

Q: What is the admission process? How does the format make sure that the right students get selected/shortlisted?

A: Admission process: Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch.) Eligibility: No candidate shall be admitted to an architecture course unless he has passed an examination at the end of the 10+2 scheme of examination with at least 50 percent aggregate marks in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics or passed the 10+3 Diploma Examination with Mathematics as a compulsory subject with at least 50 percent marks in aggregate. Admission Criteria: Admission to the program is through a competitive process conducted over three rounds:

1. The application process with its personal statement and supplemental information
2. NATA Score
3. Counselling Bachelor of Design (BDes) & BA (Hons.) Built Environment Studies Eligibility: Successful completion of Class XII examination or equivalent (CBSE, State Boards, IB, Cambridge, and other Government-recognized school-leaving exams)'. Applicants are welcome from any study stream including Arts, Commerce, and Science etc. Admission Criteria: Admission to the program is through a competitive process conducted over three rounds: 1. The application process with its personal statement and supplemental information 2. Jindal Creative Aptitude Test –JCAT (the entrance exam) 3. An interview process that includes a portfolio review.

Q: How does the format make sure that the right students get selected/shortlisted?

A: Jindal Creative Aptitude Test (JCAT) is an online home proctored qualifying examination for admission to the Bachelor of Design (B. Des.)- Interior, Community & Urban Development and B.A. (Hons.) Built Environment Studies program offered at the Jindal School of Art and Architecture (JSAA), Sonipat, Haryana. The JCAT exam is conducted in two parts Part A is a written test, it will be a 2-hour-long test, nominally divided into four sections of 30 mins each, and there will be no negative marking. And on qualifying the written test candidate will be invited for the interview and portfolio which is JCAT Part B. To secure a seat a candidate must qualify for both the exam with min. 50% marks each. The Jindal Creative Aptitude Test (JCAT) is structured around analytical thinking and reading of visuals and texts. It tests how students can relate various forms of knowledge about the built environment through objective and subjective questions. The test also checks the observation skills of the candidates and the understanding the material and use of the material around us. The test also checks your writing and reading skills in English language and fitment to the program. 

Q: Apart from academics what other aspects of a student are checked while selection.

A: Any student who aims to join Jindal School of Art and Architecture must have great command over English in reading, writing, and verbal to match the teaching standard and gel with the peer who is very intellectual, smart and carries the best schooling, One very important part of the selection process for BDes and BA programs is the interview & Portfolio, what we look at in the candidate while interviewing and reviewing the portfolio: The portfolio review is an integral part of the admission process at the Jindal School of Art and Architecture. We review your portfolio to assess the following: Your ability to (re)present and Describe this could be in form of sketches, paintings, drawings, photographs, videos, or audio. What the assessment shall check is your ability to work with multiple media – mastery is not what we expect; innovative use of multiple media is appreciated and so is the ability to work with different media and how well you describe things through representation. Your Ability to Make and understand how things are made: We will assess your portfolio to see how much you are interested in making things as well as understand how they are made. Making could be in any form, it could be a basket you have made, a thing that you have fixed around the house, a system that you have made, or even a recipe that you have prepared. We would like to see it as part of your portfolio. Document it, the thing you have made as well as your process of making it. Any form of documentation is allowed, it could be a video, a Do-it-yourself (DIY) video or drawings, or any other media you choose. The Process of making is what we want to see. Your Ability to craft narratives, and tell stories using multiple media: We will assess your ability to craft stories, and narratives, to include your voice along with others. This story could again be in any media, it could be all textual, audio-video, pictorial, just voice – all media are welcome. What we want to see, and judge your ability to describe things and tell wonderful stories.

Q: What are some initiatives being taken/planned by you school to make its student’s industry ready?

A: Jindal School of Art and Architecture is committed to producing industry-ready and industry-leading students. It has several programs and strategies through which the school ensures that students who graduate from Jindal School of Art and Architecture go on to be ready to hit their work running.

Live project-based Atelier: Jindal School of Art and Architecture is the only school of design and architecture in the country where after their first semester student’s work with live clients, consultants, and other stakeholders to produce the built environment. The result is that students learn from and learn how to deal with real-life situations becoming completely industry-ready in the process. Jindal School of Art and Architecture internship program multiple internships at leading firms such as WWF India, CIDC, TRIPP, IIT Delhi, Hyderabad Urban Lab, Scan the World for my Mini Factory, London, McGill University, Canada, Ashoka Trust for Research on Ecology and Environment (ATREE), Herman Miller, CBRE, CSE, JLL, Observer Research Foundation, Stir World, Space Design Consultants, Scan the World, London, Opus Indigo and Jackfruit Research and Design from the end 2nd year.

Externship Program: Jindal School of Art and Architecture has a unique externship program that allows its industry partners to offer courses for credits to Jindal School of Art and Architecture students during the academic semester. So it is a work with industry while you learn to program.