BNU-SVAD (Mariam Dawood School of Visual Arts and Design) is perhaps the only art and design institute in South Asia where students from all SAARC countries (including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Srilanka) study.  Prestigious UNESCO Madanjeet Singh scholarship provides these students with this enviable opportunity and instrumental foreign education experience. 

Yohi (T. Thajendran) and Siva (S. Kajendran), two students from Sri Lanka, enrolled in “MA Art and Design Studies” (MA ADS) program, recently delivered a talk about SVAD, BNU in their native town Jaffna. 

Talking about their experience,Yohi and Siva said “We wanted to share with students over there, the student led structure of the MA programme at BNU and the exposure and inspiration that we are getting from well designed courses taught by the best art and design faculty in the region under the leadership of renowned artist Rashid Rana. In addition to the regular mandatory and elective courses, we have particularly benefited from BNU's various informative events (like Nothing Fest, Design Summit, SVAD Talks Series and Open Day) and the overall collective Lahore experience. In the end briefly we talked about our own art practice and research work that we have the freedom to focus on in the program.”