Two Degrees from Sydney, One Master's from Melbourne: Alipta Niyogi's Design Journey

When Alipta Niyogi walked into Global Reach in 2018, Australia was barely on the radar for families in Siliguri. The dominant idea was US or Europe. She'd already submitted applications to American schools. But something about Australia felt right — and she came back with a prospectus from the University of Technology Sydney that was, as she puts it, "very chunky, very intriguing."

That prospectus changed the direction of her life.

The double degree nobody else was doing

At UTS, Alipta found that the Bachelor of Design could be combined with a degree called Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation — at the time, the only such degree in Australia. The design strand gave her the technical vocabulary of the field: typography, visual identity, print, digital. Creative intelligence and innovation gave her problem-solving frameworks, project management, and leadership theory.

"I was a little greedy," she admits. "I thought if I'm going to go study somewhere and put in so much effort, I might as well maximise the output." Four years later she had two degrees.

The unusual pairing turned out to be a selling point in every job interview she walked into. "A lot of my interviews are spent explaining how that degree is an asset to me as a designer and why I am different from others." That is the value of doing the curriculum homework before you apply — not just picking a course by its name, but understanding what it actually trains you to do. It's a point we make consistently in our conversations with students exploring design and creative programmes abroad.

A semester in Sweden — at -3°C

UTS had international exchange partnerships. Alipta used one: a semester at Jönköping University in southern Sweden, one of Scandinavia's most popular student towns. She went in January. The sun rose at 9:30 am and set by 3:30 pm. The temperature sat at minus three. She learned about fika — the Swedish tradition of stopping everything for coffee — and discovered that the way a culture deals with its winters says a great deal about what its people value.

She also crossed into Norway, skied cross-country in a friend's cabin, and had planned more before COVID locked Europe down. "Even in four months, in the middle of a global crisis, I had so much experience I can look back at very fondly."

Building a career one cold email at a time

Alipta graduated from UTS in 2023. Before she did, she had already been building her portfolio outside the classroom — which is exactly the advice she now gives every student who asks.

The standout example: she emailed the Taiwan Film Festival cold, said she was interested in their programme and their culture, and asked if they needed someone on their team. They wrote back. The senior designer above her left for Melbourne a week after she joined. Most of the season's design work landed with her — invites, social media, the full identity. "From that festival alone I got my future mates, more jobs, and people who became part of my circle for a long time."

She also worked remotely for a creative media company in Shanghai — an unpaid internship that was part of her course, contracted through the university. It became paid work before she moved on.

Her point about these experiences applies well beyond design: "The real world is not like the classroom. You are going to run into scenarios you haven't seen. You get used to talking to people about who you are professionally, what your services are, and you learn to leverage your networks meaningfully."

Post-graduation, as a visa holder competing for full-time roles, she reached out to recruiters on LinkedIn — not to ask for a job but to ask about their journey. "People are always happy to talk about what they've done with their lives." One of those conversations led directly to her last position: midweight graphic designer at a medical-assisted technology company.

Why she chose RMIT for her master's

After two years in industry, Alipta is now at RMIT Melbourne for a Master of Communication Design. The reason was equal parts professional and personal.

Professionally: graphic design is exceptionally strong in Australia. Studios that work on global campaigns are clustered around the same neighbourhoods as the universities. They come for guest lectures. They want to recruit. "You are surrounded by what you are studying." This kind of ecosystem is what separates a degree in Sydney or Melbourne from a generic creative programme elsewhere — and it's what we look for when we help students identify the right destination for design careers on our Study in Australia page.

Personally: she has lived in Sydney since 2018 and has built a life there — favourite places, a network, an understanding of how the system works. Moving to Melbourne for the master's is new enough to be exciting, close enough (one-hour flight) to feel grounded. "Instead of going completely new, I thought: if there is value professionally and personally, I can travel as much as I want later."

On racism, safety, and what she actually found

We asked her directly — the question many parents from Siliguri want answered. Her answer was careful and honest.

"I'm not going to deny there are microaggressions here and there. But by contrast, the way I have been accepted is so much bigger. Those things happen globally everywhere." What she found was that it tended to be reciprocal: genuine curiosity about other cultures was met with genuine curiosity in return. "In general I found Australians to be quite helpful, kind, and fair-minded. They give you a chance."

Australia has strong systems for international students — accommodation guidance, insurance registration, tax filing support. "Services are easy to access and explained well. That is a big part of making sure you are welcome and you know how to live there."

On AI and what designers will need

Her take on AI was the most grounded we've heard: "We've already hit a stage where we are almost post-AI generation. People can now correctly point out what is AI-generated because it's got this look where everything looks the same." AI handles the repetitive. Designers bring direction, meaning, and the human judgement that makes something resonate rather than simply render.

"Your thinking, your ideation, your understanding of visual culture — those are as old as humanity. That's what takes a generic graphic post to something that creates value."

If your child is drawn to design, Alipta's path — starting with deep research into what each course actually teaches, building a portfolio before graduating, and treating every internship as a long-term relationship — is one worth understanding in detail. Start that conversation with us, or get a course match in two minutes with our Course Finder.