L’École de design Nantes Atlantique

Chris Ebbert, dean of the Transcultural Design Master’s programs in India and China, pictures the current developpement of the Asia Campus entities in Bangalore and Shanghai.

Synchronized organisation in three locations, Nantes, Bangalore & Shanghai

As it may by now be known, I have taken on the role of dean of our school’s two Asian subsidiaries in Shanghai and Bangalore in the second half of 2011, and have since then been pursuing a course of implementing a number of changes in both locations.

Shanghai and Bangalore now run almost entirely synchronized with the timings and curriculum in Nantes. As a result, students and lecturers will be able to exchange information and advice across all three campuses better, and administration is streamlined. We now have the possibility for students enrolled in one campus to attend classes in another without risk of missed lectures or deadlines. This aspect is still being developed, but it could become an interesting reality.

A common goal, different organisations

While teaching activities may be based on the same structure in both locations, their local interpretations are, of course, different, and so they should be.

The character of the Shanghai Experience is leaning towards a more corporate flavour, thanks to the metropolitan spirit and commercial realities of the city, which provides us with many opportunities for interfacing with high-level industrial emissaries and projects. Against the backdrop of China’s successful manufacturing and outsourcing aspects, we can provide a challenging and satisfying study experience for the professionally ambitious.

In Bangalore, a very similar reality is now emerging, thanks to the influx of a good number of staff from industry, who will be teaching the established curriculum of L’École de design Nantes Atlantique. Our cooperation with our partner school, Srishti School of Art, Design, and Technology, has been modified into a more independent arrangement, in the process of which we will continue to benefit from an Indian infrastructure and social aspects, conducting our own study programme.

The Indian experience may appeal more to those students whose interest is in user focus, human factors, social aspects, and design questions on a fundamental and humanistic level, as the very open, local conditions allow for profound investigation of an ancient culture now booming both economically and in terms of developments in the field of design. A pioneering experience for those with humanitarian and anthropological ambitions in the field of design is what we can offer here.

Whichever location students choose, they will find a well-developed structure, based on the accredited curriculum of L’École de design Nantes Atlantique, taught by selected lecturers recruited diretly from local industries, and coordinated by locally based teams.

The adjusted scheduling of the academic year will now allow for full-year student visas to be taken out before students arrive in China or India, as we have implemented a September-to-September academic year.

The coming year will see us cultivating the newly implemented structures, and welcoming an increased number of students over the previous years. Special workshops to intensify exposure to local work culture pertaining to design are being run for the first time in both locations this year, and many new and exciting industry contacts for live projects have been forged.

Applications by external applicants give us reasons to believe that future years will see us expand as education providers in our respective locations, and students from Nantes may well have more local fellow students soon. Guest students from partner institutions will be welcomed again this year, and a special envoy of Indian design students to Shanghai is being planned.