The National Institute of Fashion Technology offers admission into the BDes and BFTech programmes under the NIFT lateral entry admission (NLEA) scheme. The NIFT NLEA seat matrix will be released online at nift.ac.in. Candidates shortlisted for NIFT NLEA admission will be allotted seats under this scheme. Hence candidates want to know ‘How many seats are available in NIFT lateral entry 2026?’. The details for the same are provided below in the article as for the seat availability under the NIFT lateral entry 2026.
The NIFT lateral entry 2026 is an opportunity for the candidates who have completed their Diploma in the relevant field of Design & Technology. NIFT NLEA 2026 is the scheme of offering direct admission to the third semester of the UG programmes, namely BDes and BFTech.
As the NIFT 2026 official brochure is yet to be published, candidates interested in obtaining design course admission into the third semester can go through the NIFT NLEA seat availability as provided below based on the previous year. NIFT authorities will release the NLEA seat matrix category-wise and programme-wise. The total number of seats available for NIFT NLEA 2026 category-wise across all the NIFT campuses are as follows.
Programmes | Seats for | Total | |||
Open/OBC/EWS | SC | ST | NRI | ||
Bachelor of Design (BDes) | |||||
Accessory design | 18 | 23 | 41 | 30 | 112 |
Fashion communication | 5 | 19 | 41 | 18 | 83 |
Fashion design | 11 | 20 | 26 | 16 | 73 |
Fashion interiors | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 15 |
Knitwear design | 3 | 5 | 14 | 9 | 31 |
Leather design | 6 | 10 | 9 | 15 | 40 |
Textile design | 24 | 30 | 40 | 31 | 125 |
Bachelor of Fashion Technology (BFTech) | |||||
Apparel production | 69 | 55 | 47 | 58 | 229 |
Total | 140 | 166 | 222 | 180 | 708 |
Note: The listed seats are tentative where the final number of seats will be displayed at the time of seat allocation.
Aspirants interested to get admitted into the 3rd semester of the NIFT UG programmes need to appear for the NIFT entrance examination. The NIFT 2026 will be held in January as per the trend of previous year. The NIFT admission is based on the scores obtained by the candidates in the entrance exam of NIFT (GAT and CAT) and also on the NIFT Situation test for BDes. For BFTech admission, only the scores in GAT will be considered as there is no CAT exam for this programme.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
There may be variations in the total number of seats for NIFT NLEA.
A total of 479 seats are available for NIFT BDes under the NLEA scheme.
The NIFT NLEA programme is an opportunity for the students to obtain direct admission into the 3rd semester of the NIFT UG courses.
On Question asked by student community
Hello Neharika
These are the topics which are most important in the Current affairs section in respect to NIFT Entrance Exam:
1. National and International Awards and Honors
2. Government Schemes and Initiatives
3. Sports
4. Appointments and Newsmakers
5. Science and Technology
6. Indian and World Economy
7. International Relations
8. Fashion Industry Updates
9. Books and Authors
10. Art and Culture
11. Environmental and Social Issues
To know more about NIFT Entrance Exam: NIFT Entrance Exam by CAREERS360
Hope this answer helps! Thank You!!!
Hello,
According to the sources, the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) entrance exam for 2026 will be held in February 2026. Also, the registration period may open from November 2025.
I hope it will clear your query!!
Dear Candidate ,
Yes , you are eligible for NIFT - UG 2026 . Based on your birthdate , you will be 19 years old as of August 1 , 2026 , which is well within the age limit .
NIFT requires applicants to be under 24 years of age on August 1 of the admission year , with a 5 year relaxation for SC/ST/PwD candidates .
Hello
The syllabus of NIFT 2026 will be released on October 2025 by Nift officials on their official website nift.ac.in . The syllabus comprises of topics General Ability Test (GAT) and Creative Ability Test (CAT). The syllabus is different for UG and PG programmes. The GAT syllabus consists of :
The CAT syllabus consists important topics like
To download the complete syllabus kindly refer this
https://design.careers360.com/articles/nift-syllabus
Good luck !
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