The Urban Fellows Programme (UFP) | 2021-22

India’s urban transition is unprecedented in scale and complexity. Within it lie both the opportunities for economic development and greater employment as well as the challenges of persistent inequality, extreme deprivation and environmental degradation. The UFP offers the chance to be a part of shaping this transition.

The UFP is scholarship-based, nine-month, full-time, residential and inter-disciplinary, based at the IIHS City Campus in Bengaluru. It seeks to combine classroom-based teaching, site-based applied learning, work on live projects and external internships to introduce Fellows to diverse forms of urban practice. The UFP is open to recent graduates and young professionals from varied educational backgrounds or practice domains. The UFP completed its fifth year in May 2021.

7 Elements of Learning

Internships

About UFP

Library

Years

150+

Students

100+

Projects

150+

Placements

Why be an Urban Fellow?

Interdisciplinarity

Aspects of the UFP

Hear from our Fellows

Shape India’s Urban Transition

Many fresh graduates and undergraduates are interested in working on the complex challenges that are encountered in contemporary cities. However, they are not sure how to shape their research and practice to engage with these issues. The UFP prepares Fellows to find their own practice and perspective on how to shape India’s urban transition – a massive opportunity that will define India’s future over the next century.

Develop Skills for Real-Life Problems

A core part of the UFP is to build a robust set of skills. UFP focuses on the key skills an urban practitioner needs not just today but a decade from now. These skills are technical, analytical, professional and importantly, interpersonal.

➦ See the full set of Skill Labs in UFP

Engage with Thought Leaders

Throughout the UFP, Masterclasses provide Fellows the opportunity to meet, engage with, and learn from thought leaders from across disciplines, fields and practice sectors. This engagement is not just to gain technical knowledge, but to learn how to craft a life in practice, and make ethical, strategic and effective professional choices.

➦ List of Master Classes

Acquire Interdisciplinary Knowledge

If urban problems cross disciplinary and sectoral lines, can knowledge remain within silos? Regardless of their disciplinary training, Fellows will acquire inter-disciplinary knowledge and skill sets that can be a foundation for urban careers across sectors and practice domains.

➦ See the structure of the Commons here.

➦ See the structure of the Electives here.

Gain urban work experience

UFP provides for a two-month internship placement at a range of institutions— public and private, local and national, and across sectors and domains. These internships allow Fellows to immediately apply their learnings from the course, build professional networks and explore post-programme work opportunities.

➦ See the current list of participating institutions that are hosting Fellows here.

Hear from the experts

Know more about IIHS and the UFP from experts.
Kindly click on the thumbnails to watch the videos.

Nandan Nilekani
Board member, IIHS

Aromar Revi
Director, IIHS

Chandrashekhar B Bhave
Board member, IIHS