For universities & colleges · With DIC Hub, IIT Hyderabad
Build a design department.
We help institutions start a human-centred design department, turn an existing visual communication, fine arts or multimedia programme into a full design programme, or launch programmes in design strategy and in design thinking & entrepreneurship — curriculum, faculty, studios and the approvals path, end to end.
Why now
Every discipline now needs designers. Few institutions can teach design.
NEP 2020 asks for multidisciplinary, skills-based, project-led degrees, and industry, start-ups and government need people who can understand users, frame problems, build solutions and turn them into ventures. Many institutions already have the students and part of the faculty. What they lack is the curriculum, the studio culture and a credible academic partner to build it with.
Three tracks
Start where your institution is ready.
Track 01 · Design
A design department
A full design programme — communication, product, interaction or service design — built new or converted from visual communication, fine arts, applied arts or multimedia.
Track 02 · Strategy
Design as strategy
A programme in design strategy for management, commerce and liberal arts students: design thinking applied to organisations, services, brands and public systems — design as a way to decide what to build and why.
Track 03 · Entrepreneurship
Design thinking & entrepreneurship
A programme for any department — engineering, science, management, humanities — that takes students from a real problem to a tested prototype and a venture, linked to pre-incubation and incubators.
Each track can run as a full programme, a minor, an elective sequence or a certificate, depending on your regulations and what your students need first.
Design as a strategy
Programmes in design strategy and in design thinking & entrepreneurship.
For institutions that want design thinking across every department, not only inside a design school.
Track 02
Design strategy
Design thinking as a management and policy discipline: understanding people and systems, framing the right problem, and leading change in organisations and public services.
- Human-centred research and systems mapping
- Service design, customer experience and brand strategy
- Design for public systems and policy
- Innovation strategy, portfolio and leadership
- Studio projects with real organisations, judged by a jury
Track 03
Design thinking & entrepreneurship
Built on our Design Thinking & Entrepreneurship curriculum and course books: students find a real problem, design and test a solution, and shape it into a venture they can pitch.
- Problem discovery, field research and empathy
- Ideation, prototyping and user testing in the lab
- Value proposition, business model and go-to-market
- Pitching to a jury of faculty, founders and investors
- Pre-incubation pathway with partner incubators
Where institutions start
Build on what you already teach.
- Visual communicationInto a communication design programme: research, systems and service thinking, user testing and a studio portfolio — not only image-making.
- Fine arts & applied artsInto product, craft or communication design, keeping the making skills and adding human-centred method, materials and manufacturing.
- Multimedia & animationInto interaction, UX and experience design, with research, prototyping and testing at the centre.
- Management & commerceA design strategy programme or minor: service design, customer experience, innovation strategy and design for public systems.
- Engineering & sciencesA design thinking & entrepreneurship track that adds problem framing, prototyping, product thinking and venture building to technical degrees.
- A new departmentA human-centred design department built from the ground up, with its own programmes, studios and faculty.
What we build with you
Everything a programme needs to run.
01 · Curriculum
Programme and course design
Programme structure, credits, course outlines, studio briefs and assessment by jury, mapped to NEP 2020 and your university's regulations.
02 · Faculty
Faculty development
Your faculty train through the Faculty Training Programme at DIC Hub, IIT Hyderabad, then co-teach the first studios with our faculty.
Faculty Training Programme
03 · Studios
Studios and labs
Studio, workshop and prototyping-lab design: layout, equipment list and phasing, building on any lab or tinkering facility you already have.
04 · Pedagogy
Studio culture and juries
The studio-and-jury method that makes design education work: real briefs, critique, iteration and external juries.
05 · Industry & ventures
Projects, placements and incubation
Live briefs from industry and government, internships, immersions at DIC Hub, IIT Hyderabad, and a pre-incubation route for student ventures.
06 · Network
The DIC network
Your department joins the Design Innovation Centre network, with access to DIC immersions, certification and research collaboration.
The path
From first conversation to first cohort.
01
Assess
We review your programmes, faculty, facilities and students, and agree which track — or combination — fits.
02
Design
Programme structure, curriculum and studio plan, written with your academic leadership.
03
Approve
We prepare the academic documentation and support you through your university and regulatory approval process.
04
Train
Faculty complete the FTP at DIC Hub, IIT Hyderabad and co-teach the first studios with our faculty.
05
Launch
Studios set up and the first cohort begins, with juries, live briefs and immersions in the first year.
06
Review
Annual academic review of outcomes, curriculum and faculty, so the programme keeps improving.
Approvals
We walk the approvals path with you.
Starting or converting a degree programme needs approval from your university and the relevant regulator. That application is your institution's, and we work alongside you through it.
We prepare the academic case — programme rationale, curriculum, course outlines, faculty plan, studio and lab requirements, and assessment design — and support your team through each stage, drawing on long experience of how design programmes are structured and evaluated in India.
- Programme rationale and academic case
- Curriculum, credit structure and course outlines
- Faculty qualifications and development plan
- Studio, lab and infrastructure requirements
- Assessment and jury framework
What your institution gets
A design culture, not just a syllabus.
Programmes that recruit
Design, strategy and entrepreneurship programmes students and parents recognise, with routes into design, technology, business, start-ups and public service.
Faculty who can teach them
Faculty trained in studio pedagogy and human-centred method, backed by ongoing support from our faculty.
A network behind you
Membership of the DIC design innovation network, immersions at IIT Hyderabad, incubation pathways and research collaboration.
Why HCD Institute
Built by people who have done it before.
Curriculum
Curricula already adopted
HCD Institute's design curriculum has been adopted by a state university, and we design programmes for universities and colleges across India.
Academic depth
With DIC Hub, IIT Hyderabad
Programmes are designed and delivered with the Design Innovation Centre Hub at IIT Hyderabad, whose faculty bring decades of design education experience.
Publications
Our own course books
The Design Thinking & Entrepreneurship series, written by our faculty, gives new programmes ready teaching material.
Curriculum & booksFAQ
Questions from vice-chancellors and principals.
We already run a visual communication programme. Can it become a design programme?
We're not a design school. Can we still start something?
Who applies for approval?
Do we need new faculty?
How long does it take?
What does it cost?
Build a design department