Urban institute considering city as location for campus

The Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), an institution devoted to urbanisation and settlement issues, is considering Bangalore for locating its mother campus in 2011. IIHS is a creation of a group of entrepreneurs and professionals like Nandan Nilekani, Rakesh Mohan, Keshub Mahindra, Deepak Parekh and Jamshyd Godrej supporting the institute.

When established, it would be the first-of-its- kind institute in India. The institute is also looking at Mumbai, Hyderabad and NCR (national capital region) as possible locations for the campus.

IIHS will offer multi-disciplinary four-year Bachelors in Urban Practice (BUP) degree, a two-year Masters in Urban Practice (MUP) degree and its doctoral and applied research programmes. It will also conduct multilingual distance and e-learning programmes, multi-locational management and technical training for working professionals and advisory services.

The academic programme is expected to commence in 2011, with the advisory and training programmes getting off to an earlier start. The nearly 100-member faculty will be domestically and internationally sourced and appropriately remunerated, said a statement from the institute. Aromar Revi, a development consultant, researcher and academic will be the first executive head of the new university and its allied institutions.