Admissions Open for the Young India Fellowship Class of 2014-2015

NEW DELHI, September 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

The challenge is on once again to be part of India's most exciting post-graduate programme, the Young India Fellowship (YIF). Applications are open for YIF's Class of 2014-2015, the fourth edition of the ground-breaking multi-disciplinary fellowship that's fostering India's academic, social and business leaders of tomorrow.

The latest batch, which will begin sessions in June next year, will again reap the benefits of YIF's continuing association with its academic partners, the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania (Penn) and top international Liberal Arts colleges, Sciences Po, in France, and Carleton College, in the US.

YIF Dean, Dr. Pramath Raj Sinha, the founding Dean of the Indian School of Business, said it was exciting for the programme to be entering its fourth year. "YIF has now well and truly proved itself with students being offered admission to the likes of such institutions as Oxford and Wharton and placements at the World Bank, McKinsey & Company, Amnesty International and WWF," Dr Sinha said. "It has also continued to have some of the most inspiring local and international faculty teach the Fellows," continued Dr. Sinha.

YIF admissions opened on the 5th of September and will close on February 28th 2014. The admission process is split into two rounds. Round 1 admissions will close on December 15th. "It's prudent for an applicant to apply as early as possible in a rolling admission process as the admission process rolls on and Fellows keep getting selected in the earlier round, the number of seats available for the later rounds keeps reducing," Deputy Dean, and Admissions Head, Dr Anunaya Chaubey said.

YIF offers full and partial scholarships to successful applicants through full tuition and half tuition scholarships. For the first time this year, an application fee of Rs. 1000 will be charged. An application fee waiver is offered to applicants whose parents' combined annual income is Rs. 2 lakh or less.

Last year, there were 18,676 registered applicants for the programme, up more than 60 per cent on the 11,586 the year before, and almost three times the number in the inaugural year. The YIF Admissions Board oversaw 500 in-person interviews last year. This year, as in previous years, for Round 1 applicants' personal interviews will be held in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata, while all in-person interviews for second round applicants will be held at Delhi.

Graduates of the first two YIF batches have seen considerable success. In addition to some excellent admissions and placements, Fellows have been granted a Fulbright Scholarship and Commonwealth Scholarship, and a place as a Prime Minister's Rural Development Fellow. One Young India Fellow has also returned from a year in Singapore to establish his own startup developing a low-cost tablet computer for use in Indian schools. One Fellow has moved to Afghanistan to work for an NGO empowering local women. "These are among the many admirable achievements of the two batches to date," said Dr. Sinha. "We are very proud of the accomplishments of the Fellows so far, and are closely watching their rising stars," continued Dr. Sinha.

This year, the YIF will move to the proposed Ashoka University campus at Sonepat, Haryana in the Delhi NCR region where graduates will have the option to stay on for a 2nd year treating the Fellowship as the first year of a two-year Masters degree.

For more information about YIF, visit http://www.youngindiafellowship.com

YIF Class of 2015 Admissions Rounds

Round 1

Admissions open on - 1st September 2013

Last date to submit application - 15th December 2013

In-person interview for Round 1 applicants - 20th December 2013 - 28th Feb 2014

Final offers to 1st-round applicants - 1st Feb - 28th Feb 2014

Round 2

Admissions open on - 16th December 2013

Last date to submit application - 28th Feb 2014

In-person interview for Round 2 applicants - 5th March 2014 to 30th April 2014

Final offers to applicants interviewed for 2nd round - 15th April - 30th April 2014

Programme begins - 20th June 2014

About YIF

The Young India Fellowship (YIF) is a one-year multidisciplinary post-graduate programme, which brings together a group of bright young men and women from across the country and diverse disciplines and trains them to become socially committed change agents for the future. It exposes them to a rich and diverse set of subjects and perspectives, delivered by some of the finest professors and teachers from around the world.

The Young India Fellowship programme was launched in 2011 by the International Foundation for Research and Education (IFRE) a not-for-profit (Section 25) company. IFRE is led by a team of like-minded philanthropists with strong academic and professional track records and a commitment to improve the quality of higher education and research in India.

The YIF is delivered in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. In 2012, YIF entered into a partnership with Carleton College, one of America's top-ranked liberal arts colleges, and Sciences Po, a leading university in France and Europe, to offer learning with greater diversity, depth and value at the Fellowship.

Fellows take classes in subject areas ranging from anthropology to ethics, life sciences to climate change, art appreciation to entrepreneurship. They are mentored by amongst the best corporate, civil society and academic leaders in the country. Fellows develop new insights on some of the most complex global challenges we face and a world-view based on a broad set of core disciplines.

YIF offers its Fellows full or partial scholarships and is supported by a network of well-known corporate leaders, social activists, researchers and entrepreneurs.

YIF is the precursor to Ashoka University, a long cherished dream of the founders to create a new standard in Indian higher education. Ashoka University will offer world-class liberal education through a four- year undergraduate programme. YIF will be its flagship Master's level programme. Ashoka is being set up in collaboration with University of Pennsylvania, Sciences Po and Carleton College besides other reputed institutions from across the world. The University campus is being constructed at Rajiv Gandhi Education City in Kundli, Sonepat and is expected to welcome its next batch of Young India Fellows in June, 2014.

For more information about YIF, visit http://www.youngindiafellowship.com

Primary Media Contact: Ms. Inga Butefisch, [email protected], 91-9958170246

Secondary Media Contact: Shravan Kumar, [email protected], 91-9958293745