UFP STRUCTURE

UFP draws from the IIHS curriculum co-created in partnership with the world’s leading universities including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University College London (UCL), the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the Federal University of the ABC Region, Sao Paulo (UFABC), in addition to nearly a hundred practitioners and scholars from across India.

Seven learning elements are structured across three terms: Commons, Electives and Practice. Fellows are in residence in Bengaluru for the first two, and depending on their choice in the Practice Term, will be either in residence or in their internship placements for the third. An Exposure Visit is held between the Commons and Electives Term. Masterclasses run throughout the Commons and Elective Terms. Skill labs and the Practica are held in the Commons Term.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

COMMONS

Commons represents the heart of the UFP. Taught across six core themes stretching over sixteen weeks, the Commons is where Fellows understand the different approaches, systems, aspects and components that make up the urban. It is also where Fellows from different disciplinary backgrounds learn a common new vocabulary and set of conceptual perspectives to think about the urban.

There are six core themes:

1. Built Environment and Planning	4. Infrastructure and Services
2. Identity and Social Practice	5. Urban Economy
3. Law, Governance and Policy	6. Urban Ecology, Environment and Sustainability

LEARN ABOUT COMMONS

ELECTIVES

Electives build on concepts and skills taught in the Commons and allow learners to create their own trajectories through the UFP by focusing on particular sectors and focus areas they want to develop. Fellows will be able to choose four to six Elective courses offered across different cycles, which will enable them to understand, engage and grapple with contemporary urban debates.

Elective courses are broadly of four types: Sector-specific courses like Housing Policy and Practice or National Urban Missions; thematic courses like Urban and Regional Economic Development or Sustainable Cities; technical or methods courses like Environmental Impact Assessment; and theory courses such as Southern Urban Theory. Many Electives also combine different aspects of these broad four categories. While Elective choices vary year to year, the courses on offer ensure coverage across these four types.

A list of Electives offered in 2022-23 included:

Activism and the City
Changing Cities Changing Climate
Decarbonising the City
Food and the City
Gender in the City
Governing Mega-Infrastructure Projects
Housing Policy and Practice

National Urban Missions
Southern Urban Theory
Urban and Regional Economic Development
Urban Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
Urban Risk and Resilience
Work, Labour, and Informality in the Urban

LEARN ABOUT THE ELECTIVES

PRACTICA AND PROJECTS

Learning that bridges theory with practice and emphasises problem-solving skills cannot be confined to classrooms. Fellows engage with real sites and complex urban issues through two structured components. The first is through Practica, comprising term-length, site-based applied learning modules. In the second structured component, within the Practice Term, Fellows choose a two month full time engagement – their options include pursuing an independent project, working on a live IIHS project, or an external internship matching their skills and interests. This approach offers multiple choices to the learners and all three enable real time application of theory and skills taught throughout the programme.

Practica

Practica is an interdisciplinary studio, created for Fellows to read, analyse and represent some facets of the urban through field-based inquiry using methods, theory and skills that are taught in the Commons Term. Working individually as well as in teams, Fellows imagine and develop appropriate, innovative and sustainable propositions for real sites within the Indian context.

During Practica, Fellows engage with multiple themes, such as governance and activism, livelihoods, ecology, rental housing, planning and morphology to build narratives around these themes. This also allows Fellows to interact with critical stakeholders including government officials, entrepreneurs, civil society organisations, activists and citizens. A focus on specific, bounded neighbourhoods (e.g., a municipal ward) and geographies (e.g., corridors) typically forms the ground where classroom teaching is tested, examined and reformulated. Specific methods of documentation, representation, description and analysis (e.g. mapping, GIS, surveying, interviews and participant observation) are taught and applied. Practica is conceived as a prelude to the more detailed long-term Projects.

In 2022-23, Fellows worked on Practica projects with Manyata Tech Park, Thanisandra, Bengaluru as the key research site. Past cohorts have explored various neighbourhoods in Bengaluru integrating diverse perspectives: ecological and economic transformations, social and cultural identity, urban regeneration, mobility and so on. Practicas have also focused on housing, ecological security and inclusive economic development in Bengaluru.

Projects

In the Practice Term, Fellows have an option to work on live IIHS projects across IIHS research, practice and capacity building programmes as well as in IIHS Labs for two months, enabling real-time application of theories and skills learnt during UFP. It is envisaged that specific project-related tasks would enable knowledge and skill building in specific area(s), in addition to classroom sessions. Fellows are also able to develop and hone several soft skills during their project work including teamwork, time management and presentation skills. If they join live IIHS projects, Fellows work under the supervision of IIHS Faculty and teams.

For Fellows interested in independent work, there is an option to take on an Independent Project under IIHS Faculty mentorship. Here, the Fellow uses the two months of the Practice Term to do independent research work with an approved project plan, including primary fieldwork and writing towards publication.

Examples of live IIHS Projects and Independent Projects are below.

The 2022-23 Fellows worked on the following live projects within IIHS:

A critical examination of a pilot project for housing solutions for the unorganised industrial workers	Justice implications of large-scale Renewable Energy deployment: A case of Pavagada solar park
Archiving Planning for Activists (KNOW website)	Mapping KR Puram: Analysing Economy, Ecology, Housing and Built Environment in KR Puram
Atlas of solid waste processing/ disposal sites in Karnataka/ India	Mapping the existing ecosystem of creche(s) for informal women workers
Building Curriculum	Rethinking off-grid cities
Cinema in the City: Understanding cinema exhibition ecosystems	Role of Flood Preparedness Assessment Scorecard in improving flood preparedness and actual response – A review of effectiveness
Drivers and Delivery Workers: Matching Occupational Hazards with Health Insurance	Sustainability Assessment of Experimental Building at Kengeri
Exploring Caste dimensions in Urban: A Literature Review	Scoping literature review on intersections of climate change and health in India
Housing and living conditions of women migrant blue-collar workers in garment and textile industries	State of the Field: Social Protection
Imagining an Urban NREGA	Understanding marginalisation from the intersection of health in the urban – a scoping review
Industrial Estates and their impact on Employment and Ecology

The 2022-23 Fellows worked on the following independent projects

Evolvement of Religious Identity in the University Setting

Non-normative Gender, Desire, and Domesticity

Revisiting Caste in Urban University

Fellows of the 2016-2020 batches have worked on the following independent projects:

Assessment of Shelter Arrangements: Rohingya Refugees in Bengaluru	How are Cultural Practices reproduced in the City?: The site of the Drishti Gombe
Bodh Gaya’s Rural Urban Dilemma	Space, Belonging and Everyday Learning Experiences: A Case Study of Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS)
Lakes Beyond Barriers: A Case Study of Jakkur Lake	Story of a Street

Fellows of the 2016 – 2020 batches have worked on the following live Projects:

A City of Migrants: Understand Precarity Through Livelihood Lens in Siliguri	Metropolitan Development and Land-based Financing
A Morphology of Delhi Through its Property Records	Metropolitan Land-based Financing for Bangalore International
Aggregators: A Tale of Regulations	PEAK Urban Project: Manufacturing Cities
Calcutta Citi(es): Planning and Variations	PEAK Urban Land: Analysis of Land Based Financing at the Bangalore Airport
Development and Performance Indicators for 12 Urban Local Bodies in Karnataka	PEAK Urban Land: Making of an Economic Hub
Ecological Farming In The Urban	PEAK Urban Land: Understanding the Economic and Financial value of Land in Jolly Mohalla
Enabling Inclusive Conversations Around Exclusive Breastfeeding	Rental Housing Arrangements and Domestic Workers in Jaipur
Exploratory Study On Governance: A Spatial Story Perspective Governing Land	To Develop a Digital Module to Facilitate Monitoring of Accounting Activities as part of the Management of Community Toilets in Trichy
Healthy Vizag: Interventions in Sanitation and Solid Waste.	UNICEF Programming 101 – Urban Informality and Childcare
Living with Floods: How Rural Volunteers Centre in Assam is Building Community Resilience	UNICEF – Urban Informality and Childcare
Masculinities and Micro-entrepreneurship: The Experience of App Work.	Accessibility of Urban Spaces for Differently Abled People
Moving towards a Gender-Sensitive Pedagogy	Affordable Comfort for All: Analysis of Thermal Comfort at the Experimental Building, Kengeri Campus
Planning ‘Violations’ and Urban Inclusion	Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) A Survey on Rental Housing – Program Review
Peri-Urban Transformation and Adaptation Strategies in Bengaluru’s Periphery	Changing Landlord and Tenant Relationship Post-Covid
Refurbishment of District Hospitals in Lucknow	Cities of What-ifs
Resilient Strategy for Cuttack’s Health Woes (with a focus on Jaundice)	Covid 19 and Lockdown Impact on Domestic Workers of Jaipur
State of the Field report on Urban Health in India	Household Risk and Insurance
Secondary Research on Rental Housing	Innovative Land-based Financing Mechanisms used by the BBMP
Tales From Cochin	Impact of Covid 19 and Lockdown on RHAs of Domestic Workers. Rajasthan Mahila Kamgar Union (RMKU), Jaipur
The Hungry Cities	Landlord Tenant Relationships (LTR) in Rental Housing Arrangements of Jaipur, in Association with Rajasthan Mahila Kamgar Union (RMKU)
Toolkit on Housing and Planning for Housing Rights Activists in Jharkhand	(Im)possibilities of Cosmopiltan Potentialities and Negation of the Urban Conditions
Understanding the Landscape of Institutions and Collaborative Action in Bangalore’s Water Sector	Making Industrial Corridors work for Agriculture in India: An Op Ed
Why the “Why vs Micro-entrepreneur” Debate is Reductive – Seeing Through the Eyes of Uber/ Ola Driver Partners	Main Bhi Dilli – Research and Advocacy
Across Policy and Practice: Exploring the Land Pooling Story	Mapping Economic Clusters in Bangalore Neighbourhoods: Moving Beyond the Cities Embellished Growth Story
Building Capacity for the Future City in Developing Countries (PEAK)	Mega Infrastructure: Mapping the Industrial Landscape of Tumkur
Social, Built Form and Land Audit, Indore	Niligiri Biosphere and the Communication Archive of the Pandemic
Financial Modeling of Baby Box Project (Maa Tere Doodh Ka Haq)	PEAK Project (Research area: Urban Health)
PEAK Land – Jolly Mohalla	Skin Net Zero Building in Solar Decathlon India (SDI)
PEAK Economy	Survey on Rental Housing Program Review: Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHCs) Ease of Living
PEAK Land Based Financing	Tracing Impact and Recovery of Domestic Workers in jaipur
Latthe Di Chaddar (Municipal Schools in Chandigarh)	Urban Flood (+ Drought): Vulnerability Assessment
PEAK Infrastructure and Planning	When the Levee Breaks: Sharpening India’s Climate Reportage in the Age of Anthropocene
Peri-Urban Village and Caste	An exploration of public transport in Bangalore
Localising the SDGs	Assessment of quantity and quality of historic waste disposed in one of the ULBs of Karnataka
Tempos, Trucks and Tech	Assessment of vulnerabilities and risk to critical infrastructure systems in Cuttack and Surat
Low Income Rental Housing	Chief Minister’s Economic Transformation Advisory Council (CMETAC)
Sulikere Forest, Bengaluru	Community Perception of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS): An exploratory study in Bangalore
Podcast (Urban Health)	Government housing schemes in Jharkhand
Warehousing Project	Lakes Beyond Barriers: A Case Study of Jakkur Lake
PEAK Spatial Modeling and Water	Livelihoods and Nurturing Care for Women in Informal Work/Paid Domestic Work
Call me by my name (Karnataka Goonda Act)	Mapping the social equity effects of energy transition – A Case of BESCOM, Bengaluru
Across Policy and Practice: Exploring the Land Pooling Story	Memory, Identity and Deindustrialisation : Reflections from the Post-industrial Mill-scapes of Bangalore
PEAK Health	PEAK Project: Urban Health research stream
Assessing the Feasibility of the School Complex/ Consolidation Model in Urban Areas	Pedagogic resource tools and archive: Knowledge in Action for Urban Equality (KNOW)
A Study of Caste Dimensions of Peri-Urban Village Transformations in Bangalore	Portability and the accessibility of the BOCW scheme among the migrant workers
Digital Accounting Module for Management of Community	Rental housing for blue-collar workers
How do People Build their Houses in a Refugee Colony in the City of Siliguri	Rethinking off-grid cities: neighbourhood registers of food retail
Hungry Cities – Exploring Questions on Mobility and Governance through the Street	Rethinking off-grid cities: neighbourhood registers of infrastructure
Vending Act	Space, Belonging and Everyday Learning Experiences: A Case Study of Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS)
Hungry Cities Project on Urban Food System and Food Security	Study of paid and unpaid care work in urban homes in the cities of Bangalore and Chennai for the International Labour Organisation.
Inclusive Cities Course: Planning for Activists	The Moving Museum of the City: Industrial Narratives of Bengaluru
Inclusive Cities Project – Urban KNOW Team	Mapping Urban Missions to Sustainable Development Goals

LEARN ABOUT PRACTICA AND PROJECTS

SKILL LABS

Through the UFP, Fellows are equipped with high levels of technical, analytical and professional skills that are taught through a series of Skill Labs. Along with assignments, Practica and Projects, Fellows apply these skills in practical problem-solving contexts. This includes a mix of both, required and elective skill labs.

Mandatory Skill Labs offered in the Commons Term 2022-23 included:

Data Skills – IIHS Urban Informatics Lab (UIL)
Framing the Inquiry
Media and skills – IIHS Media Lab
Methods in Primary Research
Spatial Appreciation
Working with Spatial Data – IIHS GeoSpatial Lab (GSL)
Writing Skill Lab – IIHS Word Lab

Elective Skill Labs for Advanced Skills offered in the Elective Term 2022-23 included:

Advanced GIS – IIHS GeoSpatial Lab (GSL)
Advanced Media – IIHS Media Lab
Climate Analysis of a City
Ethnographic Methods
Exploring and Visualising Quantitative Data with R – IIHS Urban Informatics Lab (UIL)
Survey Design for Qualitative Research – IIHS GeoSpatial Lab (GSL)
IoT for a Smart City – IIHS IoT Lab

LEARN ABOUT SKILL LABS

EXPOSURE VISITS

Through a series of field-based exposure trips in cities of different sizes and types, Fellows are exposed to complex problems in the real world. They observe, diagnose and conceptualise solutions to real life problems in small towns as well as in larger, million-plus cities in India.

In each of the cities they travel to, Fellows meet with a range of stakeholders including government officials, business leaders and civil society organisations, among others. They get the opportunity to learn about particular questions on urban services, affordable housing, environmental sustainability, transportation, employment generation, poverty reduction and small business development.

During Exposure Visits, Fellows work in teams to facilitate peer learning and applied skills learned through Skill Labs, such as qualitative or quantitative methods, film making and report writing.

In 2016-17, Fellows visited five cities: Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kochi and Madurai. In 2017-18, they visited Chennai, Mumbai and Amaravati/Vijayawada. In 2018-19 and 2019-20, Exposure Visits were conducted in Chennai and Mumbai.

In 2020-21 and 2021-22, Exposure Visits to cities outside Karnataka were not conducted due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. However, as part of the Electives, field visits within Bengaluru were conducted with safety protocols in place.

Exposure Visits was an integral component of the Programme for 2022-23. Fellows visited Mumbai, Hyderabad, Trichy and Tirunellveli. These visits were conducted with relevant COVID-19 guidelines, and IIHS’s operating procedures and safety protocols.

LEARN ABOUT EXPOSURE VISITS

MASTERCLASSES

Masterclasses are a critical learning space for Fellows that go beyond technical and disciplinary knowledge; they provide opportunities to meet thought-leaders and practitioners from India and across the world, to learn about their work and the challenges they face as practitioners in different disciplines and domains. These close interactions help Fellows learn about diverse ethical, political, and material complexities while practising in urban contexts. It exposes them to specific domain knowledge that is rooted in years of experience. Masterclasses help to identify and explore professional options and career trajectories.

Recent UFP Masterclasses have been taught by:

Aromar Revi
(Director, IIHS)
Lorraine Kennedy
(CNRS Research Director; Member, Center for South Asian Studies (CEIAS), Paris at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS))
Mittali Sethi
(Director, Vanamati; Dental Surgeon and Indian Administrative Service (IAS) – 2017)
Paul, Beena, Joy and Father Aloysius

Masterclasses have also been taught by:

Ajay Mathur
(Director General of TERI – The Energy & Resources Institute)
Ajay Noronha
(Cinematographer and Documentary filmmaker)
Anand Lakhan
(Activist, Researcher)
Aromar revi
(Director, IIHS)
Aruna Roy
(Social activist, professor, union organiser and former civil servant. President, National Federation of Indian Women and founder, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan)
Barbara Harriss-White
(Senior Research Fellow, Area Studies, University of Oxford)
Bhargavi Rao
(Centre for Financial Accountability, Delhi)
Chandrashekhar B Bhave
(Chairman, IIHS and Chairman, Securities and Exchange Board of India – 2008-11)
Champaka Rajagopal
(Principal Urban Designer and Planner, Groupe SCE India)
Darshini Mahadevia
(Professor, Faculty of Planning, CEPT University, Ahmedabad)
Deepak Sanan
(former Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Himachal Pradesh)
Dinesh Kumar Mishra
(Director, MITM Jamshedpur)
E-Governance Foundation
Harini Nagendra
(Professor of Sustainability, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru)
Harsh Mander
Human rights and peace worker, writer, columnist, researcher and teacher, works with survivors of mass violence, hunger, homeless persons and street children.
Jagdish Krishnaswamy
(Dean, School of Environment and Sustainability (SES), IIHS)
Leo Saldanha
(Coordinator/Trustee, Environment Support Group)
Main Bhi Dilli Team
Nandan Nilekani
(Chairman, Infosys and former Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India)
Nikhil Dey
(Social Activist, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, Suchna Evum Rozgar Adhikar Abhiyan and NCPRI)
OP Agarwal
(Chief Executive Officer at WRI: World Resources Institute)
Paul Rabe
(Co-ordinator – Urban Knowledge Network Asia)
Paul Divakar and Beena Pallickal
(National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights)
Pushkal Shivam
(Deputy CEO of Aurangabad Smart City Development Corporation Limited – ASCDCL)
Rahul Sami
(Staff Software Engineer at Google, Former Associate Professor at the School of Information, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)
Renana Jhabvala
(National coordinator of the Self-Employed Women’s Association, and Chairperson, SEWA Bharat)
Subasri Krishnan
(Filmmaker and Lead – Media Lab, IIHS)
Sai Balakrishnan
(Assistant Professor of Global Urban Inequalities | University of California, Berkeley)
Satyaki Raghunath
(Chief Strategy & Development Officer, Bangalore International Airport Limited)
Vijay Kelkar
(Former Chairman of the XIII Finance Commission, Executive Director, Former Finance Secretary)
Vijayan Menon
(Planning activist, Bengaluru)
S.V Ranganath
(Former Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka)

INTERNSHIPS

In the Practice Term, Fellows may choose to undertake a IIHS live Project or Independent Project or opt for a two-month internship with an external organisation. The UFP Internship is conceived as one of the key learning elements critical in transitioning Fellows from classroom learning to the complex world of work and practice. It helps Fellows find a suitable project and organisation that fits their interests and future trajectories.

ufp-2022-internship-certificates-1500x430

1. Evaluation of Skills and Interests

Fellows are encouraged to evaluate their skills and interests based on their academic trajectories at UFP as well as their professional and educational backgrounds. Individual and group meetings are conducted to decide the types of internship and organisations each Fellow wants to pursue.

2. Exploration of Opportunities

The UFP internship team works closely with a network of entities (i.e. companies, firms, NGOs, think tanks etc) in diverse sectors and builds upon UFP alumni connections. Fellows are then matched with organisations and can explore opportunities.

3. Application Process

Multiple sessions teach verbal and written communication skills to the Fellows. They learn to prepare application materials – including writing Cover Letters, CVs, writing samples of their work, emails to organisations and honing their interviewing skills.

4. Selection Process

Based on individual organisation’s requirements, the UFP internship team facilitates the selection process including providing interview tips and guidance. Organisations are offered the ability to interview students virtually; Fellows are provided with interview spaces and technological support for a seamless process.

5. Acceptance and UFP requirements

Each learner focuses on a work programme after discussions with members of the IIHS faculty and the organisation about mutually beneﬁcial outputs from the internship. Outputs can take multiple forms including policy brief or analysis, spatial plans, business models, technical reports, ﬁlm and video, or a conceptual paper among others and are submitted as part of UFP content. Mentors in the organisations as well as UFP Faculty grade Fellows’ performance and output.

In 2022-23, over 80 organisations offered over 110 internship opportunities to UFP Fellows. These include: