Quality Improvement Programme (QIP)(QIP)

Overview

About QIP

QIP is shut to anyone who is not already on a teaching payroll. AICTE's 2026-27 scheme guidelines say it in one line: only sponsored teachers are eligible for admission to the Master's and Doctoral degree programmes. If you are a polytechnic lecturer or an engineering college faculty member whose employer will release you, this is a funded seat at an IIT, NIT, IISc, IIIT or a state technological university. If you are a student, no part of the scheme is open to you.

QIP is an admission channel with a scholarship attached, not a grant you claim after joining a course on your own. The Government of India launched it in 1970 and AICTE implements and monitors it, with the study seats spread across the 110 QIP centres listed in the 2026-27 guidelines. Your parent institution has to be AICTE approved, and you have to hold a valid AICTE Faculty ID before the portal will take you seriously.

The scheme covers two categories of applicant. The 2026-27 guidelines put faculty of AICTE-approved polytechnic institutes in the first, eligible for an M.E., an M.Tech or a PhD, and faculty of AICTE-approved degree-level engineering and management institutes in the second, eligible for the PhD. That first category is wider than the older scheme record still in circulation, which pairs polytechnic faculty with the master's programme alone, and the revised admission calendar for 2026-27 settles the point in a footnote: polytechnic teachers from AICTE-approved institutions are eligible for both the PhD and the M.E./M.Tech programme.

Tenure is fixed and short. Two years for the master's degree with no provision for extension at all, three years for the PhD with extension described as not normally granted, and no scholarship for any extended period. One flex point exists for doctoral scholars: after the pre-PhD course work, a delay of up to six months in joining can be permitted by the QIP Centre Coordinator, and anything longer has to be reported to AICTE and cleared by it before admission, as set out in the scheme guidelines.

The centre list is worth reading before you pick preferences, because it is not only IITs. It carries NITs, IIITs, the four NITTTRs, IIEST Shibpur, Tezpur University, Jamia Millia Islamia, Anna University, Jadavpur University, Delhi Technological University, Osmania's engineering college, six IIMs and a long tail of state engineering colleges. A note printed under that list decides how tight the competition gets at the smaller centres. Where a QIP centre is itself an AICTE-approved institution, it can take polytechnic faculty into M.E./M.Tech only if it already runs an AICTE-approved M.E./M.Tech course, those QIP seats sit inside the intake AICTE has already sanctioned for the course, and AICTE allots no additional seats for the scheme. Centres in the IITs and NITs fall outside that restriction and admit polytechnic faculty on their own eligibility criteria.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

The cycle is annual and the application link opens in March. Two calendars for 2026-27 are in circulation and only one of them is current. The scheme guidelines booklet prints 30 April 2026 as the last date for the online application, with tentative results on 1 June for the master's course and 10 June for the PhD. AICTE then issued a revised calendar that moved the last date to 15 May 2026 and pushed every stage behind it back as well. The revised calendar is the one that governs, and it is the one set out below: a teacher who reads only the booklet in early May will believe the cycle has closed while two weeks of the window are still open.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Two criteria sets, and then a third one you do not control. For the master's programme you need to be a full-time regular or permanent faculty member of an AICTE-approved polytechnic institute with one year of teaching experience at polytechnic level and a Bachelor's degree in the appropriate branch. For the PhD you need to be full-time regular or permanent faculty of an AICTE-approved degree or diploma level institute, with three years of teaching experience at polytechnic or graduate level institutes and a Master's degree in the appropriate branch, per the 2026-27 guidelines. On top of that, the criteria of the QIP centre and its department have to be met, which is where a specialisation requirement or a departmental cut-off can end an otherwise valid application.

The IISc Computer Science and Automation department is a concrete example of what a centre adds. Its PhD under QIP page asks for an M.Tech or equivalent in a listed set of computing and electrical disciplines in addition to the qualifications for its regular PhD programme, sponsorship by the employer on deputation, and an undertaking to serve the parent institute afterwards.

Two things the AICTE criteria do not ask for are worth stating because applicants keep assuming otherwise. Age never enters the test at all: the guidelines measure years of teaching service and the degree already in hand, and set no upper or lower age on a QIP applicant. Nor is GATE a requirement. GATE, UGC or CSIR NET and JRF certificates appear only in the upload list marked "if any", so they are optional evidence rather than a qualifying test, though an individual department may weigh them. Everything about your eligibility is frozen on one date, since the guidelines count all eligibility as on the last date for submitting the application notified in the advertisement.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

QIP's disqualifiers are not written up as a list anywhere. They sit scattered through the guidelines' cancellation clause and its terms, and the sharpest of them bars a repeat degree: there is no provision for a second admission to the M.Tech or PhD programme for a faculty member who already holds an M.Tech or PhD degree.

Money from elsewhere is the other exclusion, and it is written as a suspension rather than a ban. If a scholar draws any financial assistance or scholarship from another organisation during the course, with or without permission, the AICTE scholarship stops for that period, resumes when the external assistance stops, and the period already covered by the outside money is deducted from the maximum duration of the award. Salary is the one thing carved out of that clause, which is what makes a deputation workable. Incomplete or incorrect applications are rejected summarily under the guidelines, with no request entertained afterwards.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

There is no renewal form. The scholarship is granted month by month, subject to satisfactory academic performance and adherence to the institute's norms, certified by the QIP Coordinator of the institute. The administrative trigger sits with your coordinator, who has to mark your attendance on the QIP portal by the fifth day of every month, and the guidelines list both insufficient attendance and the coordinator's failure to mark attendance in time as grounds for cancelling the scholarship.

Leave is capped and needs prior approval from the QIP centre in every case. Scholars get 15 days of casual leave and a maximum of 30 days of medical leave in an academic year. Maternity and paternity leave follows Government of India norms at full rates of scholarship, once during the tenure of the award, and the maximum duration of the scholarship is not extended for it under any circumstances. If a scholar takes a medical break longer than the eligible leave, the scholarship is discontinued from the day that leave expires and resumes on rejoining, for whatever remains of the sanctioned period, as the scheme guidelines set out.

What you get

Award & benefits

The doctoral rate is roughly two-thirds higher than the master's rate, and the PhD track carries a pre-PhD travel and stay component that the master's track does not.

The pre-PhD payment has conditions that catch people out. No travel or daily allowance is admissible when the district of the parent institute and the admitting institute are the same. The full pre-PhD grant goes only to scholars who attended the entire pre-PhD work offline; for a mix of online and offline work, payment is at Rs 750 per day for the offline period alone, and there is no pre-PhD payment for online work, per the guidelines.

Your salary is a separate stream and does not come from AICTE. The scheme's own terms exclude salary from the bar on other financial assistance, which is why a deputed teacher can draw both. Where a state government sponsors the deputation it books that pay itself, and Kerala's Directorate of Technical Education order deputing polytechnic faculty to M.Tech under QIP names the budget head from which the salary of deputed staff is to be met. The scholarship, annual contingency and pre-PhD amounts themselves are released through the online QIP portal straight to the beneficiary's Aadhaar-linked account by DBT, so an inactive or unseeded bank account stops the payment at source. No separate medical assistance is provided, though a scholar may use the medical facilities of the host institution with the head of institute's permission.

• For Master of Engineering (ME) or Master of Technology (M.Tech) Programs
• Scholarship: ₹9,000 per month.
• Annual Contingency: ₹5,000 per annum.
• Scholarship: ₹15,000 per month.
• Annual Contingency: ₹15,000.
• Pre-Ph.D. Expenses: One-time lump sum amount.
• Travel Allowance (TA): ₹15,000.
• Daily Allowance (DA): ₹30,000 for a Pre-Ph.D. duration of 60 days (no TA & DA if the parent institute and admitting institute are the same). Full Pre-Ph.D. grant for offline work. For partial online and offline Pre-Ph.D. work, payment at the rate of ₹750 per day for the offline period, with no provision for Pre-Ph.D. payment for online work.
• Leaves: Casual leave: 15 days in an academic year.
• Medical leave: Maximum of one month (30 days) in an academic year.
• Maternity/Paternity leave: as per Govt. of India norms issued from time to time at full rates of scholarship, etc. once during the tenure of their award. However, the maximum duration of the scholarship will not be extended in any circumstances.
• NOTE: Prior approval of the QIP center is mandatory for all leaves.
• Mode of Payment: The Scholarship/ Annual Contingency/ Pre- PhD etc. will be released through the online QIP portal directly to the beneficiary’s Aadhar-linked account through DBT mode.

What to prepare

Documents required

The upload list is long but ordinary. What decides whether your file moves at all are the two documents AICTE treats as gatekeepers: the guidelines state that the Aadhaar number and the No Objection Certificate are mandatory and that applications will not be accepted without them. The NOC is the piece your employer controls, so start it before the portal opens rather than in the last week.

The experience certificate has a format trap: current and previous experience go in as a single PDF, not as separate files. Master's mark sheet and degree are compulsory only for PhD applicants. The caste certificate is uploaded only for relaxation in the application fee, which the guidelines give to SC, ST, PwD and female candidates, so an OBC teacher uploads it and still pays the general fee. Papers you scan at this stage are not the end of it, because the guidelines require the originals in hard copy at admission along with the relieving letter from the parent institute, and for a college affiliated to a university, the administrative approval of that affiliating university, plus anything else the QIP centre asks for.

Step by step

How to apply

Applications are made online at the AICTE QIP admission portal, and the notification and link are also carried on the AICTE website. You choose up to three QIP institutes or departments in order of preference on the form, so the preference order is the one strategic decision in the whole application, and it is made before any test or interview.

The application fee is Rs 1,700 for General and OBC candidates and Rs 850 for SC, ST, PwD and female candidates, non-refundable in every circumstance under the scheme guidelines. Your institution's part is the sponsorship: the NOC while you apply, the relieving letter and, for affiliated colleges, the university's administrative approval before the centre admits you.

Tracking is done by email and by logging in, not by a status widget. The guidelines instruct candidates to check email regularly and to log in to the QIP admission portal from time to time, because shortlisting for the interview or test is communicated by the QIP institute or department by email only, and a missed interview caused by an unread email is not reconsidered. Final selection reaches you the same way, by email or by an update in the QIP portal, followed by an admission offer letter from the concerned QIP institute. If more than one institute selects you, you have to lock your preference within the timeline stated in that email. After admission, the QIP centre registers you on the portal for scholarship disbursement, and from then on your monthly payment tracks the attendance your coordinator marks there. Payment gateway problems go to IIT Kharagpur's continuing education office and portal faults to AICTE's technical desk.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Selection runs in three stages and passes through a single national gate. Applications are first screened for minimum eligibility, then scrutinised by the shortlisting committee at the Nodal QIP Centre, which for 2026-27 is IIT Kharagpur. The Nodal Centre verifies that you hold a valid AICTE Faculty ID and that your parent institute is AICTE approved, taking technical help from AICTE, and forwards eligible candidates to the QIP centres you named as preferences.

Stage two belongs to the centre. It calls shortlisted candidates for an interview or test against its own department-wise eligibility criteria and institute norms. Stage three is the merit list: the centre recommends scholars against the seats AICTE has approved for it, prepares a merit list with waitlisted candidates in order, and forwards it to the Nodal Centre, which sends the list to AICTE for approval. The centre then issues the admission offer letter. A waitlisted candidate climbs the final list when a selected candidate opts out and does not join.

Seat approval is per centre and visibly uneven. The 2026-27 guidelines give eleven centres the top quota of 30 PhD and 30 M.E./M.Tech admissions: IISc Bengaluru and the IITs at Guwahati, Delhi, Bombay, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Hyderabad, Varanasi, Kanpur, Roorkee and Kharagpur. Most of the remaining IITs and most NITs are set at 25, while IIT Gandhinagar, IIT Bhilai, IIT Goa and four NITs are held to 10, the same ceiling as every IIIT, the four NITTTRs, the university centres and the engineering college centres. The IIM centres are approved for PhD seats only, with the M.E./M.Tech column marked not applicable. Selection itself follows the UGC, affiliating university or institute rules for the centre, and AICTE gives no grant to the QIP centres or the Nodal Centre for running the process.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The undertaking you sign is the heaviest clause. A scholar has to give an undertaking that he or she will not leave the course midway, and a scholar who leaves midway, fails or drops out in a subsequent year has to refund the total scholarship, contingency and pre-PhD amount drawn up to that point. Termination for misconduct works the same way and is recommended by the head of institute, with all scholarship availed till termination refundable. The scholarship is also liable for cancellation for non-completion, for being found ineligible later, and for false information or fraudulent activity, which additionally invites penal action. AICTE reserves the right to terminate at any time during the tenure, and its decision is stated as final and binding.

A few smaller conditions decide real cases. AICTE also runs a clock on arrears: once twelve months have gone by since the programme finished, a belated claim for scholarship or contingency you never drew is refused outright. A foreign study tour during the PhD may be undertaken with the approval of the QIP centre or affiliating university, but AICTE bears no expense for it beyond the regular scholarship, and the total scholarship stays capped at the sanctioned two or three years. The PhD rules and regulations of the affiliating university or institute, other than what the scheme itself stipulates, apply to every admitted candidate, and the scholarship amount can be revised by the competent authority in AICTE. All of this is in the scheme guidelines.

The obligation to go back and teach is not in the AICTE guidelines at all, which is the single most misread part of the scheme. It is imposed by the centre and by your sponsoring government. IISc's Computer Science and Automation department requires QIP applicants to undertake to serve the parent institute for a minimum of three years after completing the programme. Kerala goes further and makes it a financial instrument: its Directorate of Technical Education deputation order for AICTE QIP polytechnic faculty requires every deputed teacher to execute a bond with sureties on stamp paper worth Rs 500, and a supplementary bond on top if they are still inside a bonded period from an earlier deputation. That order also issues the sponsorship certificate only after the bonds are verified and accepted, asks the deputed teacher for a quarterly progress report to the principal of the college they were relieved from, and asks for the QIP centre's completion certificate on rejoining duty. Read your own state's deputation order before you apply, because it, and not the scheme, sets what you owe afterwards.

Get help

Contact

The Principal Coordinator for QIP admission 2026-27 is Dr. Haimanti Banerji, Associate Dean Outreach and Professor of Architecture and Regional Planning at IIT Kharagpur, reachable at adeancet@adm.iitkgp.ac.in. Portal and technical faults go to ittlb@aicte-india.org on 011-29581307, payment gateway queries to cep_off@adm.iitkgp.ac.in at IIT Kharagpur, and scheme matters to qip2tlb@aicte-india.org, one of four AICTE addresses the scheme guidelines give a QIP centre coordinator for anything to do with running the scheme, alongside ad3tlb@aicte-india.org and directortlb@aicte-india.org. Questions about eligibility for a particular department or specialisation are answered by the QIP centre itself, not by AICTE.

Source

Official links

Frequently asked questions

From the official scheme FAQ (myScheme)

Read this

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Scheme details are compiled from myScheme, the Government of India’s official scheme-discovery platform, and are reproduced without alteration. Amounts, deadlines and eligibility change between cycles, so always confirm on the official links above before applying. Expertie does not process applications or charge fees.

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References

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