Archana Surana

Archana Surana is a design educator, mentor, and social entrepreneur with 30 years of experience in design education. As the founder and director of the ARCH College of Design and Business in Jaipur, India, she has a legacy of 25 successful years in design, business, and research, empowering the youth through higher education pathways. 

She has been instrumental in articulating undergraduate and postgraduate-level programs in various specialised Design streams for State Universities. Today, Arch offers both national and international certification courses.

She is presently Vice President of the Cumulus Executive Board (2022-2025) and represents India and the Global South as an Executive member on a board represented by 11 countries. She chairs global co-working groups, Women in Design and Fashion & Textiles. Cumulus is the leading international association of Art, Media, Design Education, & Research, a dynamic ecosystem with 395 higher education institutions in 71 countries.

Her new initiative, the International Student Talent Camp “Design Identity Direction,” takes an experiential learning approach and has international appeal. It is driven by the goal of addressing critical sustainable development goals (SDGs) through industry and community engagement and interactions.

As Chairperson, she conceived and organised the Fashion Colloquium in 2020 and the Design Culture—Pink City Design Confluence in 2022. The DESIGN CULTURE initiative is her mission to harness the power of design to educate at the K12 level, empowering educators and students to develop their design skills.

She is a member of the Committee of Course for Design programs at the University of Rajasthan and has served as an Academic Council Member of the Vishwakarma Skills University. She is also the Dean of the Fashion Design Faculty (Fashion, Jewellery & Interior) and is currently a member of the CBSE Committee on Skills Development in India.

As a social entrepreneur, her contributions to youth and women’s empowerment have earned her the YUVA ICON award from former Indian President Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and other prestigious awards and accolades from industry, academia, and social organisations.