The Directorate of Technical Education Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram has invited applications for admission to the Bachelor of Design (B.Des) program, Kerala for 2025-26 academic year.

This is a course of Four years duration consisting of 8 semesters.  The provisional list of institutions where the B.Des course is being offered is given in Annexure 1 of the Prospectus available at https://lbsapplications.kerala.gov.in/ksdat2025/  

Eligibility: Only Indian citizens are eligible for admission to B.Des, courses unless otherwise notified. Those seeking admission to the course will be categorised as Keralite, Non-Keralite Category I (NK I) and Non-Keralite Category II (NK II). Details are given in the Prospectus.

Academic Eligibility: Applicant must have passed Higher Secondary Examination (10+2) or examination equivalent there to as approved by KTU with at least 45% marks (40% in case of those belonging to reserved category) or passed D.Voc. Stream in the same or allied sector. No rounding off of percentage of marks to the nearest higher integer is permitted.

Selection Process: Selection will be from the rank list prepared based on the score obtained in the Kerala State Design and Aptitude Test (KS-DAT) to be conducted by LBS Centre. Applicants should qualify in KS-DAT for getting admission to the Government seat. 

Selection to Management Seat: Admission to management seats can be done directly by the management. For admission to management seats, the candidates must have qualified any one of the national level entrance examinations like NATA (National Aptitude Test in Architecture), UCEED (Undergraduate Common Entrance Exam in Design), NID DAT (National Institute of Design, Design Aptitude Test), NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology Entrance Examination) or the entrance examination, KS-DAT conducted by LBS Centre and other academic eligibility prescribed by the affiliating university. 

Test structure: KS-DAT will be and OMR based test of One Hour and Forty minutes’ duration and will be conducted at various centres to be announced later. Applicants will be given option through online portal to select the suitable examination centre prior to the examination. KS DAT will have total of 100 Objective type multiple choice questions from (i) Social and Basic sciences (10th level-10 questions) (ii) General knowledge (20) (iii) English Language (20) (iv) Numerical ability and Analytical Aptitude (20) and (v) Design Awareness (30). The topics under each section are given in the Prospectus. Each question carries 1 mark.  No marks will be deducted for incorrect response. The rank list for admission to the course will be published based on the total marks secured by the candidates for the Entrance Examination. Those who have secured marks above zero will only be included in the rank list.

Application: Application can be submitted online at https://lbsapplications.kerala.gov.in/ksdat2025/  

Application fee is Rs. 1300/- (Rs.650/- for SC/ST). Application fee can be paid latest by 20th May 2025, online or paid in any branch of Federal Bank using the Chalan that can be downloaded while submitting online application. 

Online Application must be completed by May 22nd, 2025.

Allotment: The Allotment to the colleges under Centralized Allotment Process (CAP) will be based on the options submitted online by the candidates who have been included in the rank list for admission to the B.Des Course 2025-26, Kerala and through a Single Window System (SWS). 

The Colleges that participated in CAP 2024-25 are (i) College of Architecture Trivandrum (C.A.T) Mulayara Post, Trivandrum (ii) Kerala State Institute of Design KSID Rd, Chandanathope, Kollam (iii) Saintgits College of Engineering Kottukulam Hills, Pathamuttom, P.O. Kottayam (iv) KMCT Institute of Emerging Technology and Management Mukkam, Kozhikode and (v) DC School of Architecture and Design, Thiruvananthapuram. Academic Tuition Fee was Rs.75000/- per semester and Caution Deposit (One Time Refundable) was Rs. 10000/-. The final list of colleges included for allotment for 2025-26 will be published in the website later. 

For details, the Prospectus may be seen.