National Institute of Design (NID) Ahmedabad witnesses a buzz of excitement in its campus as both students as well as the authorities calmly wait for the convocation ceremony scheduled to be held on 18 January 2016.
There will be 288 students pursuing the Bachelor of Design and Master in Design courses who will be awarded in the convocation ceremony, informed the authorities. The Monday’s ceremony will witness sixteen students receiving the diploma certificate and amusingly, these sixteen individuals will be the last batch, to be given the diplomas.
The annual ceremony will see 304 students participating therein. Mr. Amitabh Kant, a bureaucrat, in-charge of the ‘Make in India’ initiative, and the mastermind behind the central government's ‘Incredible India’ campaign will deliver the convocation address.
The institute will exhibit designs of the graduating students at the Gandhinagar campus.
"These students completed the course before the NID Act was implemented. As part of the act, the institute was granted power to grant degree certificates rather than diploma certificates to its students," said an official of the Institute
The recipients of the certificates had completed the course in 2014. When questioned over this, Mehta answered,” “Reasons for receiving late diploma certificates can be due to delay in completion of diploma or industry projects. But these 16 students will definitely be the last among students to get the diploma certificate; no student will be awarded a diploma certificate after this. However, the 16 students will also be given equivalent certificates."
The certificates will state that the diploma is equivalent to a degree.