Georgian Technical University is one of the largest educational and scientific institutions in the Southern Caucasian region, with more than 20,000 students. In 2022 it celebrated its centenary - founded in 1922, it remains a leading engineering school in the entire region, a high education institution with a robust scientific core. Currently, GTU consists of 14 Faculties, covering Engineering, Technology, Architecture, Design, Humanities, Law, Medicine, Business and Social Sciences.
IDS (International Design School) is the first fully English-language Faculty of the Georgian Technical University. The goal of IDS is to integrate engineering and design.
The opening of the International Design School (IDS) in 2013 was initiated by one of the most famous designers in modern history – The Car Designer of the XX Century - Prof. Dr. Giorgetto Giugiaro, the Italian automobile stylist and founder of ITALDESIGN Group.
Programs of IDS have been prepared in full accordance with the highest international educational standards currently adopted by leading European and North American design schools. Courses at IDS are conducted by foreign and local professors and are highly valued by both the foreign and local bachelor and master students of IDS, as well as by visiting students on various EU exchange programs such as Erasmus+, Tempus and others.
International Design School offers the following Bachelor and Master Programs which every year start at the beginning of October:
For Bachelor’s Degree (Duration 8 Semesters = 4 Academic years):
Qualification to be awarded: Bachelor of Arts in Design – majoring in either Interior and Furniture Design, or Digital and Industrial Product Design
Qualification to be awarded: Bachelor of Architecture
For Master’s Degree (Duration 4 Semesters = 2 Academic years):
Qualification to be awarded: Master of Arts in Design
The Bachelor’s curricula cover engineering (mathematics, mechanics, health & safety, ergonomics) and liberal arts (art, philosophy, social sciences, design & society) foundation courses followed by design studios in digital and industrial products, architecture, or interior design. Master students learn critical tools to assess design theory, science & technology, and work on more sophisticated projects in studio units according to their specific interests.
Our teaching approach aims at adequately preparing our students for the future and the changing demands that designers and architects are facing. This is why we also support our students in gaining technical skills. Equipped with computer workstations, a model shop, a Fab Lab, access to 3D printers and a CNC manufacturing facility for CAD-CAM real-time operations, as well as a number of test chambers for building materials, our faculty provides a cutting-edge work environment.
Each student has an access to individual computer station equipped with Autodesk-licensed CAD upgradable software connected to the internal network of the IDS, its virtual library, and to the Internet. The virtual library, launched in October 2014, consists of digital files stored on a server and accessible to students and staff from the IDS computers. Daily updated, as of Summer 2023 the library contained over 100,000 items including more than 43,000 PDF and EPUB versions of books, around 43,000 PDF copies of over 430 periodical titles (mostly specialist English-language magazines, with some newspaper and serial editions), and over 15,000 video and audio tutorials, and software. The IDS is building up a conventional library, as well.