Urban Fellows Programme 2023-24 - Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS)

The Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) is a national education institution and a prospective national university, committed to the equitable, sustainable and efficient transformation of urban Indian settlements. IIHS is a prospective independent national institution of eminence and innovation university focused on its urbanisation.

The Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) will create and nurture a unique, inclusive and innovative interdisciplinary knowledge-based university of global stature that is rooted in the plurality of Indian and other South Asian cultures, languages and scholarship and is open to all. It is focussed on the creation, dissemination and application of knowledge and practice in all matters connected with the establishment, operation and transformation of human settlements; more particularly human settlements located in India and South Asia.

The team within the institution brings together a wide range of multi-sectoral perspectives, experiences and skills to address a range of challenges and opportunities that IIHS works with. This ranges from strategy, regulation, resource mobilisation, financial management, institutional and human resources development, campus planning and development to core functions of curriculum development, teaching and research, training and development, consulting and advisory service delivery.

The IIHS Urban Fellows Programme (UFP) | 2023-24

India’s urban transition is unprecedented in scale and complexity. Within it lie both, the opportunities of 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.

UFP is scholarship-based, nine-month, full-time, residential, interdisciplinary and based at the IIHS City Campus in Bengaluru. It combines classroom teaching, site-based applied learning, work in live projects, and external internships to introduce Fellows to diverse forms of urban practice. The Programme is open to recent graduates and young professionals from varied educational backgrounds or practice domains. The seventh batch of UFP will graduate in May 2023.

UFP is scholarship-based, nine-month, full-time, residential, interdisciplinary and based at the IIHS, Bengaluru City Campus. It seeks to combine classroom teaching, site-based applied learning, and introduce Fellows to diverse forms of urban practice through a choice of independent projects; work in live IIHS projects; or external internships. The Programme is open to recent graduates and young professionals from varied educational backgrounds or practice domains.

Through the UFP, Fellows will:

Understand issues of urbanisation in India and the Global South from multiple disciplinary perspectives.
Learn from practice as young professionals seeking to enter the urban sector.
Develop skills necessary to analyse, understand, and identify key urban issues in India.
Build a foundation to design interdisciplinary urban interventions.
Network with diverse global, national, and local thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and change makers.
Learn from a diverse and experienced faculty who bring together theory and practice.

Our Motivation: The Urban Transition

India is emerging as the site of perhaps the largest urban transition that will unfold over the next two to three decades, which is projected to add 300 million urban residents by 2050. This transition will bring not just opportunities through economic development and improved employment but also challenges, as cities will continue to deal with inequality, deprivation and environmental degradation.

Converting these challenges into opportunities will need collective and coordinated eﬀorts by governments, private enterprises, civil society, communities, and citizens. The Government of India has begun to acknowledge the enormity of this challenge through the launch of programmes such as JnNURM and RAY in the early 2000s and more recently with Jal Jeevan Mission(JJM), AMRUT, the Smart Cities Mission, PMAY, HRIDAY and Swachh Bharat. In parallel, there has also been a signiﬁcant increase in private sector activity in the infrastructure, housing and real estate sectors over the last decade and a half. This is taking place alongside an increase in household, informal sector enterprise, civil society participation, and climate change, that is transforming our cities, towns and villages at an increasing pace.

India’s emerging urban transition needs a new generation of urban practitioners with adequate knowledge, reﬂective thinking, appropriate skills, new perspectives, and the right values. Current education takes place in disciplinary silos like planning, design, technology, management, economics, humanities, legal and urban studies education, and is unable to creatively respond to these challenges. More than technology or capital, the real and urgent obstacle to transforming urban India lies in the inability of our education system to produce urban practitioners who can enable the integration, management and coordination of these disparate processes occurring in today’s urban and urbanising settlements.

The Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) is a national education institution that has undertaken to develop and teach original, innovative, and reﬂective knowledge about our urban transition that will integrate methods and approaches across disciplinary and practice traditions. Through the UFP, IIHS seeks to equip, nurture and prepare a new generation of graduates and young professionals committed to the common good, who can become change-makers, entrepreneurs and thought leaders to address India’s complex urban challenges.

Shape India’s Urban Transition

Many recent 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 critical opportunity that will define India’s future over the next century.

ELIGIBILITY An ideal candidate will have a Bachelor’s Degree in any subject or discipline and their age should not exceed 30 years at the time of the UFP’s commencement. Therefore, candidates should be born on or after 1 August 1993. The Programme may, subject to facts and circumstances, consider non-degree training and certification programmes completed after 10+2 schooling. Candidates without any formal education after their 10+2 may also apply, especially if they have valuable experience of formal or informal work in urban sectors.

All candidates must have basic proficiency in reading English. There is support available for candidates with limited speaking ability in English and they are encouraged to apply.

Candidates must be Indian citizens. OCI Card holders are not eligible to apply at this time.

We strongly encourage applications from women, people with disabilities, and those from economically and socially excluded communities.

IIHS provides a diverse, inclusive, open, safe and enabling learning environment. It is committed to the principle of not discriminating against individuals on the basis of personal beliefs or characteristics such as caste, class, religion, region, ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability. The UFP is part of this commitment to create supportive teaching and learning environments. Fellows are also expected to aspire to the highest standards of ethics in their personal and professional interactions.

ADMISSIONS POLICY

The UFP admissions policy is committed to enabling two kinds of diversity in the classroom.
The first is disciplinary diversity across core methodological approaches within disciplines. This diversity is core to IIHS’ pedagogical values of imagining urban practice across disciplines and domains of practice. In IIHS, there is a shared acceptance of interdisciplinary exploration and engagement as valuable to the understanding of urban issues.
The second kind of diversity is that of identity, socio-economic status and more generally, life experience. The UFP admissions policy places diversity in the classroom as a valuable end in itself which enriches the learning environment by bringing diverse life experiences into the classroom. Further, there is recognition of historical inequalities and hardships in society.

The two-step UFP admissions process is as follows:

The Written Application

The first step is an evaluation of a written application that is structured to assess curiosity, inventive thinking, alignment with the UFP, as well as a strong desire to engage with urban questions, issues and challenges.

Interdisciplinary Selection

Applications are assessed within their respective disciplinary categories: for example, social scientists with other social scientists; engineers with other engineers; architects with other architects and so on.

Diversity of Identity and Life Experience

As part of the assessment of written applications, points are also accorded on the basis of the following criteria to ensure a diverse UFP class:

Caste
Religion
Gender (including transgender)
Education of the Mother and Father
10+2 Schooling in Non-Metropolitan Cities
Type of Secondary Schooling (Central Public, State Public, Private)
Differential Physical Ability

Individual applicants can potentially score points across multiple categories as applicable. However, the total of diversity points shall exceed no more than 15% of the total score of any candidate.

A final set of around 100-150 candidates, depending on total number of applications, will be shortlisted for the interview stage.

The Interview

In the interview stage, an assessment is conducted of the candidates’ curiosity, inventiveness and alignment with the UFP so that their expectations are well aligned with what is being offered in the UFP. All efforts are made to make the interview convivial, friendly and enabling – an opportunity for the candidate to showcase the best of themselves.

Final offers for admission to the UFP will be made based on a combination of scores from the written application and the interview.

IIHS Diversity Statement

IIHS aims to create a diverse, inclusive, open, safe and enabling learning environment. It is committed to the principle of not discriminating against individuals on the basis of personal beliefs or characteristics such as caste, class, religion, region, ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability.

The UFP at IIHS is part of this commitment to create supportive teaching and learning environments. Fellows are expected to aspire to the highest standards of ethics in their personal and professional interactions. IIHS strongly encourages applications from women, persons with disabilities, and those from economically and socially excluded communities.

FEES AND SCHOLARSHIPS

The UFP is a scholarship-based, nine month, full-time, interdisciplinary and residential programme, delivered through seven months of in-class teaching at the IIHS City Campus in Bengaluru, followed by two months of internship placements in locations where a Fellow’s particular internship organisation is located.

Tuition fee for the UFP 2023-24 is INR 2.3 Lakhs + GST for the entire programme, payable in three installments over the year. This fee includes all costs of travel for the UFP on exposure visits as well as expenditure on local and intercity travel for UFP Practica and applied Projects.
All admitted Fellows are required to pay a INR 20,000 deposit to secure their admission which will be refunded at the end of the programme. Fellows in financial need can request a deposit waiver that will be considered on a case by case basis at the time of admission to the UFP.
The UFP is committed to providing scholarships to candidates that receive admission, who are unable to pay the programme tuition, after a review of their financial needs. The programme is thus need-blind. A candidate’s selection and admission into the programme will not be affected by their ability to pay.
In addition to scholarships that cover tuition fees, there are a limited number of stipends available to cover daily living expenses for candidates with significant financial need. Candidates wishing to be considered for this will have a chance to indicate so in the admission forms.

ACCOMMODATION

Accommodation on a double sharing basis is available at no additional expense to all Fellows who receive admission. Housing, meals, internet access, housekeeping services and a central laundry facility, is provided to Fellows for the seven month in-class teaching period. A detailed list of services available at the shared accommodation, as well as terms of residency, will be provided to all candidates who clear the first stage of the application process and are called in for interviews.

Costs not covered include incidental costs such as dining out, additional purchases, and medical expenses not covered by the medical insurance provided by IIHS.

Transport

IIHS will provide pooled pick up and drop services to and from the accommodation to the campus. These will operate at fixed timings. Entry may be restricted for Fellows who arrive late after missing this service.

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Urban Fellows Programme 2023-24 – Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS)