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Fashioning Bonds with Indian Design |
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Souvik Mukherjee writes about the partnership between Nottingham Trent University and The Pearl Academy, a pioneering effort in UK-India educational collaboration. |
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With the enormous and colourful diversity in its ethnic apparel, India has long been a sleeping giant in the world of fashion. Following the international successes of renowned Indian designers such as Ritu Beri and Rohit Bal, the relatively young Indian fashion industry is rapidly emerging as a major player in world fashion. Aspiring Indian designers and fashion academies are increasingly interested in working on an international platform and this proves a major opportunity for improving global education. Extending the UK-India educational cooperation to Indian fashion, Nottingham Trent University has been partnering the Pearl Academy of Fashion in developing stronger ties between British and Indian fashion. The School of Art and Design at Nottingham Trent University is one of the most popular fashion schools in the UK and certainly the hub of fashion in the East Midlands. NTU, one of the most successful universities for graduate employment, is an obvious choice for Indian students. In fact, the number of Indian students in the university has gone up to more than double that of the previous year and the School of Art and Design is a very popular destination. The school has picked up many prizes and accolades at international venues and its alumnus, Priya Patil from India, has been judged the most creative young Indian entrepreneur in 2006 by the British Council. Recently, in keeping with its aim of highlighting new talent and fostering entrepreneurship, NTU School of Art and Design has played a key part in the success of the British Art Show 2006, hosted in Nottingham. According to Nottingham-born fashion magnate, Sir Paul Smith, the school is an absolute asset to the city: “To compete in the world market, it is important to develop and maintain British talent. Schools like this are integral to support such development”. The school is now housed in the brand-new Bonington building, located in the heart of Nottingham and offers a range of workshop facilities as well as a CAD/CAM knitwear production plant for students of Fashion related courses.
Like its British partner, the Pearl Academy of Fashion is renowned as a promising fashion school. It has achieved a high level of competence within India and has been certified as an ISO-9001:2000 institute. It facilitates global exposure through exchange programmes with reputed international fashion schools in the UK, Netherlands and Germany. The institute boasts a hundred per cent placement record with very high starting salaries. PAF’s objective is to create professionals who will establish Indian Fashion Design on an international platform. PAF has three centres in major Indian cities as well as a branch in Bangladesh. Besides this, programmes validated by PAF are delivered at Pearl Learning and Design Centre, Sharjah, UAE and at Sportsking Institute of Fashion Technology, Ludhiana, thus extending its expertise to other institutions. The academy provides knowledge and training in the field of Fashion Design, Textile Design, Jewellery Design, Fashion Retailing, Merchandising, Production, Communication Design, Photography and Make-Up. Nottingham Trent validates Bachelors degrees in a wide range of courses like Fashion Design and Fashion Merchandising and Masters degrees for courses like the MA in Fashion Design offered by the PAF. Developing this relationship into a closer bond than most such partnerships do, NTU has also seconded its staff to the PAF on several occasions. The partnership between NTU and PAF is not a new one: in some ways, it has been a pioneering effort in UK-India educational collaboration. Beginning in 1996, three years after the setting up of PAF, this collaboration has completed a decade. This was recently celebrated in Continuum ’06, an event that was jointly organized by the two institutions.
Continuum ’06, held in New Delhi in February 2006, brought together experts on fashion design from the world over speaking on diverse themes ranging from strategic branding to India’s influence on global fashion. NTU’s Ms Sue Keen, principal lecturer in Fashion Design, and Professor Simon Lewis, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Head of the School of Arts and Design, were also among the speakers at the conference. As the PAF website describes it, Continuum represents a constant and dynamic endeavor towards improving fashion education. Growth with quality is the hallmark of the collaboration and cooperation between Nottingham Trent University (NTU) and Pearl Academy of Fashion (PAF) in India’s fashion education. The past ten years have witnessed this cooperation adapting to the demands of professional and human resources development of an expanding clothing export economy. Globalisation and the onward march of the knowledge economy has brought immense challenges and opportunities to educators world-wide. To prepare students for successful and rewarding careers means preparing them to compete in a global economy. Nottingham Trent University addresses this challenge through curriculum design and through working with partners world-wide including the Pearl Academy of Fashion. One of the keys to the successful development of bilateral programme development is to recognise that no nation or institution has a monopoly on knowledge or pedagogic expertise. What is universal though is quality. Especially in service and manufacturing industries the value of the brand is measured by the quality of the product or service. This is a truism in India as much as anywhere else world-wide. One only has to look at Kingfisher’s rampant success in the Indian civil aviation sector to see this at work.
It is a principle which underpins the success of the Pearl/NTU partnership. The education is predicated on quality. Not only have both partners developed and implemented robust quality assurance mechanisms which are open to external scrutiny but Pearl has further invested in staff development, ensuring that their academics who deliver the NTU programmes are registered for the Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education in addition to industry and subject specific qualifications. Commenting on the partnership Tim O’Brien, NTU’s International Development director said, “We are immensely proud of the partnership we have built with the Pearl Academy over the years. Both parties are absolutely committed to delivering the highest quality student experience and of course to deliver qualifications and education which are relevant to the needs of the Indian economy. This does not come cheap, nor can it be delivered overnight. The secret to our success is based on that joint commitment to quality and to a long term partnership based on mutuality, trust and by putting the student at the centre of our decision making processes. “Moreover the regular exposure that our academic colleagues get to an economy as huge and important as India helps to improve the student experience in Nottingham as well.
” Souvik Mukherjee is a PhD scholar at Nottingham Trent University |
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Chairman Deepak Seth envisioned setting up Pearl Academy of Fashion in 1993 at a time when the Indian textile and apparel industry was on a high growth trajectory, but it did not have trained human resources to cope with this growth chart. Pearl Academy of Fashion (PAF) joined hands with Nottingham Trent University (NTU) in 1995 to provide trained human resources with international level skills for the Indian textile industry.
Some of the well known Indian designers launched by PAF are: Nikhil Mehra, who designed the wardrobe of Amitabh Bachchan; Manav Gangwani, costume designer in Bollywood especially for Raveena Tandon and Sharmila Tagore; Mandira Wirk, who designed the wardrobe for India’s first female cricket anchor on TV, Mandira Bedi. PAF have some very successful alumni who are at the helm of affairs in export houses, buying agencies, international operations of many Indian companies and international brands such as Liz Claiborne, GAP, J C Penney among others.
Nottingham Trent University is well recognized for its graduate employment in UK with strong partnerships with about 6,000 employers across the world. The team shared its experience with PAF for curriculum development to build in needs of all the stakeholders and keep its vocational relevance with an international perspective. The collaboration has created a two-way exchange of ideas, knowledge and experience sharing and an insight into consumer trends and developments in each other’s countries. It is in association with the NTU team that PAF diversified into other streams of design education. The decade old partnership has encouraged socio-economic and cultural exchange and has created an education philosophy that breeds a culture of life-long learning.
The partnership with NTU opened opportunities for higher education, research and access to UK’s fashion resources for PAF faculty and students. PAF alumni have been offered scholarships, fee waivers, direct entry to higher levels and above all sensitized to business culture, demands and trends of the world’s fashion capital. It is through Nottingham Trent University that PAF faculty is exposed to international level learning and teaching tools. And most of them have acquired formal certification in teaching at higher education levels – Post graduate certificate in Higher education (PGCHE) from the NTU. We have plans to expand campuses to other parts in India and diversify into other streams of fashion and design, all in association with Nottingham Trent University. Close linkages between NTU and PAF in faculty / student exchange programmes, verifier’s visits, quality control conference / visits have created an osmosis in two cultures. Indian craft sector has gained popularity among NTU Design students and faculty. Similarly, Indian faculty students have been well exposed to UK’s fashion circuit and business.
AKG Nair, Executive Director, Pearl Academy of Fashion. |
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