How Many Seats Are Available in NIFT Lateral Entry 2026? Total Seats for BDes & BFTech

How Many Seats Are Available in NIFT Lateral Entry 2026? Total Seats for BDes & BFTech

Rajyalaxmi VenkatapuramUpdated on 23 Sep 2025, 03:44 PM IST

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.

How Many Seats Are Available in NIFT Lateral Entry 2026? Total Seats for BDes & BFTech
How Many Seats Are Available in 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.

How many seats are available in NIFT Lateral Entry 2026?

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.

NIFT NLEA Admission Process

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)

Q: Will there be any change in the total number of NLEA seats for NIFT?
A:

There may be variations in the total number of seats for NIFT NLEA.

Q: How many NIFT NLEA seats are available for the BDes programme?
A:

A total of 479 seats are available for NIFT BDes under the NLEA scheme.

Q: What is the NIFT NLEA programme?
A:

The NIFT NLEA programme is an opportunity for the students to obtain direct admission into the 3rd semester of the NIFT UG courses.

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Have a question related to NIFT Entrance Exam ?

Hello Neharika

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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!!

Hello,
It’s completely understandable to feel disheartened after not getting a seat in the first and second rounds, especially when you’ve filled all the colleges and have your hopes set on a particular course like Fashion Communication . With an OBC rank of 1910 and CMR 7192, your chances can improve in the upcoming counselling rounds as more students withdraw or shift to other colleges.
So make sure to check the further rounds of counselling and don’t lose hope. Many students get seats in the 3rd, 4th, and mop-up rounds. You can also consider updating your preference list or keeping a wider range of courses and campuses open in case you're okay with related fields.
Keep checking the official NIFT website for updates on seat allotment and further counselling instructions.
Thank you

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 :

  • Communication ability and English comprehension
  • Quantitative ability
  • Analytical and Reasoning
  • Case study
  • General knowledge and current affairs

The CAT syllabus consists important topics like

  • Creative ability
  • Observation power
  • Discernment ability
  • Design ability
  • Colour combination ability

To download the complete syllabus kindly refer this

https://design.careers360.com/articles/nift-syllabus

Good luck !