• To CREATE globally engaged, environmentally sensitive professionals who possess artistic sensibility, intellectual ability, and hands-on technical proficiency;
• To PREPARE interior designers for a lifelong process of interdisciplinary exploration, reflection and development and an acute understanding of the built-environment; and
• To STIMULATE creativity and ENGENDER personal self-confidence, which is the earmark of leadership.

The Bachelor of Fine Arts in interior design program prepares students for the rewarding challenges of designing for the 21st century. The program, offered at NYIT-Old Westbury, NYIT-Bahrain, and NYIT-Abu Dhabi, focuses on the relationship between human performance and environment through an innovative mix of studio design projects, profession-specific coursework, community oriented projects, and externships in the field.

Complementing these experiences, the program also incorporates multiple site visits to furniture, fabric/textile, lighting, and other material showrooms. Links for the student are established with professionals through office visits and, wherever possible, with project sites. Summer Abroad programs are open to both interior design and architecture students. The experience becomes an opportunity for the design and architecture students to intermingle and confront architecture and design together in the same way that it developed in other cultures through the ages.

The curriculum includes course work that covers all aspects of professional interior design. A unique aspect of the program is that, during the course of their studies, the students of interior design and architecture will join in classes, which emphasize design fundamentals, building technology, and the history of architecture introducing the close working partnership between the two professions. Advanced courses in interior design cover such topics as materials, perspective, color, computer-aided drawing (CAD), building codes, history of interior design, furniture design, lighting, business procedures, and special projects. There is a strong correlation between the different levels of courses. The curriculum is sequential, with the knowledge that the skills and design sensibilities gained at each level directly affect succeeding levels, as they advance through the program.

A very special aspect to the program is that faculty members are either practicing professionals in the fields of interior design, architecture, and other related professions. This cross-disciplinary approach mirrors real-world interaction and relationships. As the professions of interior design and architecture increasingly cross-reference each other , this becomes a critical and important distinction for both programs. 

Students work closely with their faculty advisor, who serves as an academic and professional mentor throughout the years at NYIT. During the junior or senior year, students are required to complete a 256-hour externship in a professional design studio. In the final year of study, students develop a capstone thesis, which serves to showcase skills and accrued knowledge in the design program. They develop and research a program, select the site, and conceptualize and design the interior environment. The research, drawings, and images that result are then presented to a professional jury of practitioners and professors.

Upon graduation and two years of interior design work experience, they are eligible to sit for the U.S. National Council of Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ) exam. Passage of this exam, in conjunction with one additional year of work experience, will allow one to apply for New York state certification. Other states have similar certification and licensing requirements.

The NYIT Interior Design Program at Old Westbury has been accredited, since March 1984, by the Foundation of Interior Design Education Research (FIDER), now called the Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA). The most recent CIDA visit resulted in a six-year professional level accreditation through 2013.