New Delhi, June 17: In a landmark initiative aimed at transforming technical education in India, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) today launched the AICTE Industry Fellowship Programme (AIFP) — a pioneering scheme designed to immerse faculty members from technical institutions into real-world industrial environments. This move is a decisive step toward bridging the long-standing gap between academia and industry, ensuring that technical education in India remains current, practical, and globally competitive.
The programme was officially inaugurated by Prof. T.G. Sitharam, Chairman, AICTE, in the presence of AICTE Vice Chairman Dr. Abhay Jere and Member Secretary Prof. Rajive Kumar. The scheme supports the national development vision of Viksit Bharat @2047, preparing faculty—and by extension, students—for the future economy through practical skill-building, contemporary exposure, and collaboration.
While India boasts one of the largest networks of technical institutions globally, a persistent challenge has been the limited exposure of faculty to real-time industrial practices and emerging technologies. This often results in outdated teaching methods and a disconnect between what students learn and what industries require.
“We cannot expect our students to be industry-ready if our faculty themselves are not equipped with industry-relevant knowledge,” said Prof. T.G. Sitharam, while launching the programme. “Through this fellowship, faculty members will become active participants in the industrial ecosystem, gaining insight, expertise, and confidence to transform the way they teach. This is a vital step in creating national resources that are fit for the future”, he added.
The AICTE Industry Fellowship Programme is set to roll out its pilot phase in 2025–26, selecting 350 faculty members from AICTE-approved institutions for full-time industry immersion. Building on its initial success, the programme aims to scale up and train 1,500 faculty members annually over the next three to five years. Each fellowship will span a period of 6 to 12 months, allowing faculty to work closely with leading industries across priority sectors. To ensure robust financial support, AICTE will provide a monthly fellowship of ₹75,000, while participating industries will contribute a minimum of ₹25,000 per month. Additionally, the fellows will continue to receive their regular salary from their parent academic institutions, making the AIFP one of the most financially attractive and secure fellowship models in the country for faculty upskilling.
“We often talk about industry-academia linkages, but these have largely remained transactional or formal. With this programme, we’re initiating deep, long-term collaboration,” said Dr. Abhay Jere, Vice Chairman, AICTE. “Our goal is to emotionally integrate faculty with the industry—so that they return with a mission, not just experience.”
The AICTE Industry Fellowship Programme has been strategically designed to address three core challenges currently facing India’s technical education ecosystem. Firstly, it tackles the issue of low employability among engineering graduates, many of whom struggle to meet industry expectations due to limited practical exposure and outdated curricula. Secondly, it seeks to reform outdated pedagogical approaches, where teaching remains largely theoretical and misaligned with the evolving demands of the industrial sector. Lastly, the programme aims to strengthen academia-industry engagement, which has traditionally been weak, resulting in missed opportunities for innovation, collaborative research, and meaningful job creation. By embedding faculty directly into industry environments, the fellowship creates a feedback loop that helps modernize teaching, align academic outputs with real-world requirements, and build sustainable partnerships between institutions and enterprises.
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