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Lead economic and infrastructure transitions and research
This Master’s Programme takes a heterodox approach towards India’s economic and infrastructure transitions, with a focus on sustainability and equity, across different sizes of human settlements across the rural–urban continuum. It covers the following set of themes:
This Master’s Programme has two distinct parts. The first two terms of this Programme root the study of economic and infrastructure development in a broader set of urban and peri-urban systems, including those of governance, finance, knowledge systems, institutions, as well as social and environmental systems, with an emphasis on India. It does so to ensure that learners have a foundational and interdisciplinary understanding of economic and infrastructure development within a broader set of systems across the rural–urban continuum.
It then equips learners in the theoretical foundations of thinking about economic and infrastructure development not only as dimensions of growth, but also as broader urban transitions towards more equitable and sustainable cities. Learners will be able to understand heterodox approaches towards fostering the inclusive, long-term economic, and infrastructure transformation of our urban regions.
This Master’s Programme focuses equally on theory, as well as policy, programmes, and practice. Graduates will be equipped with a core understanding of policies and programmatic interventions within economic and infrastructure development, and trained to design and implement interventions and programmes in the complex reality of Indian cities and settlements. This is done through multiple modes of applied, case-based, and experiential learning built on a foundation of taught theory courses. The final component of the Programme is rigorous training in interdisciplinary methods of urban research and practice, as well as specific training in advanced methods to engage with economic and infrastructure development.
The Master of Science in Urban Economic and Infrastructure Development is a two-year, interdisciplinary, full-time degree programme. Each academic year consists of three terms of around 11–13 weeks each.
In the first two terms, learners build an interdisciplinary foundation through a set of Core Courses that situate economic and infrastructure development within broader systems of economy, society, governance, finance, and the environment.
The second year is composed of Elective Courses that allow learners to concentrate in different sectors within economic and infrastructure development, ranging from employment, to enterprise development, entrepreneurship, infrastructure systems, finance, digitalisation, green businesses and infrastructures, and circular urban economies. The second year ends with an independent internship, project and/or dissertation.
Foundation Courses, focused on holistic and integral personal development, run through both years. It is this framing of Foundation, Core, and Elective Courses that allows the University to pedagogically achieve interdisciplinary knowledge in a transformative manner.
The Foundation Courses are a set of learning experiences, interactions, and credit courses grounded in Indian culture and experiential contexts including local and traditional knowledge. These will help build a set of personal and professional capacities through experiential learning outside conventional classroom settings and enable the learner to imbibe a set of sensibilities and capacities grounded in the values enshrined in the Indian Constitution.
Foundation Courses facilitate holistic human development and integral learning engagement with the importance of being situated, committed, and empathetic while handling situations outside one’s comfort zone and dealing with situations of conflict. Some of the skills, abilities, and sensibilities that learners will be exposed to include Physical Culture, Art and Labour, Nature and Environment, Self-Awareness and Reflection, and Philosophical Orientation and Ethics.
Year 1, Terms 1 and 2: In the first two terms, learners take three kinds of Core Courses that are required for all Master’s programmes at the University. These are Core Theory Courses, Core Methods Courses, and Core Practica. These courses lay the interdisciplinary foundation across a set of urban systems and help learners see the process of urbanisation through social, economic, spatial, governance, infrastructural, and ecological lenses. They also establish competency in core skills and methods, including qualitative, quantitative, geospatial, and mixed methods; and expose learners to place- and field-based applied learning.
Core Practica is a field-based applied learning course, where theoretical concepts learnt in the classrooms are applied on field through learning-by-doing. Based in neighbourhoods of Bengaluru, learners first learn how to observe, document, and analyse different aspects of an urban neighbourhood. They then move to propositions, suggesting solutions to problems they observe and identify.
Year 1, Term 3: Learners start specialising in economic and infrastructure development in the third term. Through a set of required courses, the third term introduces learners to heterodox theories of urban and regional economic development, multiple theoretical and practice perspectives on infrastructure-linked service provisioning and the debates on poverty, inequality, and trends in Indian urbanisation.
Year 2, Terms 4 and 5: Learners choose from various interdisciplinary Elective Courses offered in this programme. These allow in-depth learning in aspects of economic and infrastructure development, such as urban infrastructure and services, land and real estate, geographies of urban work, employment generation, small business development, finance, social entrepreneurship, rural development models, and digital economy. Learners may also take up to two Elective Courses from other Master’s programmes offered by the University. Additionally, they pursue skill enhancement Elective Courses rooted in economic and infrastructure development, as well as more inter-sectoral skills, methods, and practices.
Year 2, Term 6: This term is focused on learning through doing. Through an external internship with an organisation working with economic and infrastructure development, learners will apply what they have learnt, and transition into post-graduation employment pathways. Learners can also choose to be part of IIHS teams working on ongoing projects and/or do independent research dissertations, mentored by faculty.
The Master of Science in Urban Economic and Infrastructure Development programme welcomes candidates from diverse academic and professional backgrounds who are passionate about fostering the inclusive, long-term economic and infrastructure transformation in our urban regions. The Programme will equip them with the skills to study, design, and implement urban infrastructure and economic development strategies to drive inclusive growth and development.
Graduates of the Master of Science in Urban Economic and Infrastructure Development will have a wide range of career options:
