We encourage an all-round holistic development of our students, says Amit Sheth, Dean of AnantU

Amit Sheth serves as the Dean of Advancement at Anant National University (AnantU), helping advance AnantU’s academic reputation nationally and globally. He graduated in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from BITS Pilani, going on to specialise in Product Design at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. He is currently pursuing his PhD from the Industrial Design Centre, IITB, Mumbai. He has also served as a professor & head of the Department of Design at Nirma University in Ahmedabad, which he set up as a brand new design institute. Amit has also been an associate professor at MICA, Ahmedabad, where he set up a Post Graduate Programme in Design Management. He has helped develop a syllabus for UG & PG programmes at NID, Ahmedabad.

In this Take 5-Series with Shiksha, Amit Sheth talks about what is unique about the aspects of studying at Anant National University (AnantU). He also shares the kind of projects, internships and placement opportunities that students have, the best programs to study and how to take admission to these.

Here are the edited excerpts.

Q. What is the difference between the teaching methodology in your institute and others?

Ours is a unique pedagogy where each student is nurtured to become a solutionary – a revolutionary thinker with a solution-oriented mindset. Our courses and syllabus are quite different from most other institutions in that we expose the students to more live projects, fieldwork and a lot of critical thinking.

Q. How are you preparing your students to be industry-ready?

Our students work on live-action projects from the very beginning where they get a chance to experience problems and design solutions in real-time. Our students are thus ready to take on challenges immediately upon graduation.

Q. What quality do your students have which other college students lack?

We encourage the all-round holistic development of our students. Our students are not only well versed in design but also can speak and present themselves very well, have sound knowledge in a wide variety of areas like entrepreneurship, management, social and ethnography knowledge.

Q. Do you think the curriculum of the courses taught in your institute fits in the requirement of the industry?

Of course! You cannot have only skill-oriented courses especially when there is this huge digitalisation movement going on. You need to have a correct balance of skill and practice courses as well as exposure to many courses based on a current change in our systems and lives like sustainability, green, inclusivity etc.

Q. Is your college receptive to innovation, technology, science & entrepreneurship?

Which college can afford to ignore innovation and entrepreneurship and the sciences? We encourage the students to take part in design hackathons and designathon as well as write papers and prepare posters for design conferences and workshops from the very first year. The students are also exposed to new technology and information through talks by experts, visits to technology labs, and challenging assignments.