IIHS and the NEP

IIHS is based on the core principles of: integrating applied research and education; interdisciplinary problem-solving; and creating and using India-centric knowledge.

The vision of IIHS is closely aligned with the Government of India’s commitment to making India a knowledge leader in and from the Global South; as well as creating distinct interdisciplinary universities rooted in India-centric knowledge and applied research, which have the necessary knowledge and expertise to find solutions to intractable challenges, such as sustainable urbanisation, which defy easy categorisation. This is well aligned with the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020.

The University is built on the principle that a 21st-century Indian university must develop an appropriate local and contextual knowledge base to address problems rooted in India’s own realities. IIHS’ academic programmes are designed keeping in mind India’s unique problems and the need to find developmental solutions on the ground, allowing students to generate new and relevant knowledge that feeds into the growing Indian ‘urban’ knowledge ecosystem.

IIHS demonstrates how new knowledge institutions can fulfill the mandate of the NEP by being interdisciplinary; focused on developing and implementing solutions on the ground based on cutting-edge research; creating new urban practitioners committed to the common good at multiple scales; and demonstrating how excellence, equity, and inclusion can be brought together.

The University’s academic programmes incorporate the following features from the NEP:

• Addressing the challenges of the global and Indian urban transition through unique and distinct interdisciplinary teaching and research. There is a large need to build governance, finance, and innovation capacity in India to manage the urbanisation transition. The University is targeted at creating a new generation of urban practitioners, innovators, and scholars who are equipped to solve India’s urbanisation challenges.
  
  
• Integration of STEM and science-based knowledge with multi-/inter-disciplinary abilities in social sciences and humanities. Education in the ‘urban’ is seen as an inter-connected network of disciplines that spans the natural sciences, spatial sciences, social sciences, environmental sciences, and arts and humanities, and includes the recognition of emerging interdisciplinary fields such as urban science, sustainability science, and climate science. The University fosters interdisciplinarity, within every degree, by combining broad-based, cross-discipline education with specialised sectoral and disciplinary knowledge.
  
  
• Innovative curriculum, course structures, and pedagogical methods. Critical skills are reinforced in students through the University’s Foundation, Core and Elective Courses, Practica, Integrated Cases, and Methods modules, ensuring that students develop a deep understanding of key concepts (based in theory and practice). The Curriculum is designed to overcome the separation of ‘theory’ and ‘practice’ that is often endemic in Indian knowledge institutions.
  
  
• Comprehensive learner development emphasising ethical values and life skills: The University’s Foundation Courses are an essential component of its academic programmes, focusing on the development of Indian Constitutional values and sensibilities. Learner-led self-development, in a conducive peer learning environment under the supervision of faculty mentors, enables engagement with critical sensibilities (such as empathy, respect for others, respect for tradition and culture, professionalism, problem-solving, self-reflection, the ability to take initiative with courage, effective interpersonal communication, teamwork, dignity of labour, and resilience). Compulsory Foundation Courses include Play and Yoga; Build; and Grow, Cook and Eat.
  
  
• Cultivating a global outlook in education grounded in India-centric knowledge: Respect for Indian traditional and indigenous knowledge practices in the overall development of the learner, as well as the local context of urbanisation and sustainable development, is inculcated.