Vice Chancellor Internship Scheme(VCIS)

Overview

About VCIS

The Vice Chancellor Internship Scheme appears in central scheme listings under the Ministry of Education, and that placement misleads in one specific way: nobody outside the University of Delhi can apply. Delhi University's Dean Students' Welfare office runs every round, prints the stipend on each advertisement, and picked 189 interns out of the 2,465 students it called to the 2026 summer group discussion. The scheme document and the cycle notices, not a national portal, are where the real conditions sit.

VCIS is an internal internship: Delhi University hires its own students to work inside its own offices. The scheme booklet places the Dean Students' Welfare office as the nodal centre, records Executive Council resolution 25, dated 18.08.2022, and states that all expenses and stipend related with VCIS are drawn from the University Student Welfare Fund (VCIS scheme booklet).

Because the employer and the university are the same body, the machinery a scholarship reader expects is simply absent: no counselling round, no state nodal officer, no income test. The offices taking interns are DU's own Examination Branch, Admission Branch, Central Reference Library, departmental labs, Sports Council and the Equal Opportunity Cell, where interns can be placed as readers and writers for visually challenged students. The booklet suggests interns be designated VC Interns and that the designation carry through to the certificate, and it caps the whole programme: the total proposed number of interns across both tracks is 200, revisable on the Dean's recommendation with the Vice Chancellor's approval (VCIS scheme booklet).

Two tracks run under the same name. The summer track is a short full-load block during the vacation; the part-time track runs alongside classes for up to six months. They are advertised separately, have different pay and, in 2026, different year bars.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

The booklet sets an expectation rather than a fixed calendar: the application form goes up in February and September of each academic year, which maps to the summer round and the part-time round. Actual dates are announced per cycle and have been extended more than once.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

VCIS carries no income bar and no category quota, and its scheme document sets no marks bar either. What it has is a membership bar. All bonafide full time regular students of the University of Delhi studying in any course or stream at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels are eligible to apply (VCIS scheme booklet). Students of institutions outside DU, distance learners at other universities and graduates who have left are not covered by that wording.

The year bar is the condition that actually moves between cycles, and applicants get it wrong. The summer 2026 group discussion notice ruled out final year and final semester students (Summer 2026 group discussion notice), while the part-time 2026 advertisement ruled out first year and first semester students instead (Part-Time Internship 2026 notice). Read the advertisement for the round you are applying to rather than assuming last year's bar still holds.

Two more conditions arrive with the paperwork rather than with the scheme text. The group discussion notices require that you have no ER or backlog paper, and the recommendation letter format asks your Principal or Head of Department to confirm your average CGPA, the absence of a backlog paper and that no disciplinary action is pending against you. In 2025 the office also applied a marks filter before the group discussion, calling only applicants whose SGPA in the last semester examination was 8.0 and above (Summer 2025 group discussion notice).

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The booklet's standing rule is one turn each: VCIS can be availed by a student only once during a course of study at the University of Delhi, and a student can apply only once for an internship in an academic year.

That rule was loosened for one round. When Delhi University extended the part-time 2026 deadline, the revised advertisement added that students who have already availed VCIS, summer or part-time, are also eligible for the VCIS Part-Time Internship 2026 (Part-Time Internship 2026 notice). It was written into that cycle's advertisement, so it applies to that cycle and nothing more.

Two more exclusions live in the round notices rather than in the eligibility list, and both are absolute. A recommendation letter signed by a teacher-in-charge, a faculty member or a guide instead of the Principal or Head of Department will not be accepted, and the notice states that such an applicant will not be allowed to appear for the interview (Part-Time 2026 group discussion notice). Separately, the Dean's office reserves the right to cancel the candidature of any intern after selection, at any point of the internship, if a discrepancy is found.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

A VCIS intern never meets a renewal form, because the scheme was drafted to be used once. An internship ends when its term ends, the maximum period shall not exceed six months under any circumstances from the time of joining, and the once-per-course rule normally closes the door on a second stint rather than opening one. The one thing that stays alive inside a cycle is the application itself: a duly submitted application is valid for a maximum of 6 months duration (VCIS scheme booklet).

What you get

Award & benefits

The internship is paid, and the published rate has moved since the scheme was written. The booklet sets the base at Rs 5,000 per month for interns and Rs 10,000 per month for summer interns, and adds that the stipend will be enhanced by 5% each financial year (VCIS scheme booklet). Scheme directories that syndicate this record carry a slightly higher summer base than DU's own booklet does, so neither base figure is what reaches an account today. The operative number is the one printed on the advertisement for the round being applied to.

The second benefit is the certificate, and it is conditional rather than automatic. The booklet ties the internship certificate to three things: successful completion of the assigned work, submission of a training report after the internship task, and a satisfactory assessment and evaluation report from the head of the office where you were placed. Interns who do not complete the requisite period and the assigned work will not be paid any stipend or certificate.

• Stipend: ₹5,000/- per month for interns
• ₹10,500/- per month for summer interns.
• NOTE: Stipend will be enhanced by 5% each financial year.
• Certificate: Receive a certificate of experience from the Dean of Students' Welfare.

What to prepare

Documents required

Annexure C of the booklet, a combined letter of recommendation and no objection certificate, is where applications die before anyone reads them. It goes on the college or department letterhead, carries the stamp and signature of the Principal, Head or Director, and has to be dated inside the window the round announces. The summer 2026 round required a letter signed on or after April 13, 2026 (Summer 2026 group discussion notice); the part-time 2026 round required one signed on or after August 5, 2026 (Part-Time 2026 group discussion notice). A letter dated before that window is not merely weak, it is outside the notice.

Three items are carried to the group discussion itself: a self-attested copy of the filled Google form, the original recommendation letter or no objection certificate, and a self-attested copy of the last semester marksheet. Two more come later in the process rather than at application. The joining letter at Annexure D is signed once you are placed, and the training report at Annexure E is submitted at the end, before the certificate is issued.

Step by step

How to apply

Applications open through a Google form linked from the Dean Students' Welfare website, not through the National Scholarship Portal and not through any state portal. The booklet says the form is uploaded on the CPC, Spotlight and DSW websites in February and September of each academic year, and asks applicants to indicate three preferences of specific domain or area of interest while applying (VCIS scheme booklet). The recommendation letter is uploaded with the form.

The practical sequence is short. Watch dsw.du.ac.in for the round's advertisement, get the recommendation letter signed after the date the advertisement names, fill the form before the closing date, and keep a copy of the submitted form because you have to produce it later.

Following the Application After the Form Closes

Nothing in this process reports back to an applicant privately. The Dean's office runs the whole of it through public PDFs, so checking where you stand means finding your own name inside one. The first is the group discussion notice, which prints the full shortlist with each applicant's name, a masked mobile number and the reporting date attached to each block of serial numbers (Part-Time 2026 group discussion notice). The list of finally selected interns follows as its own PDF, which drops the serial numbers and identifies each intern by a token number instead (Summer 2026 selected interns). Both go up on dsw.du.ac.in and on the university's news page, and the booklet commits the DSW office to uploading the list of finally selected students there.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Selection turns on a face-to-face round, not on marks alone. Shortlisted students are called for a group discussion at the Multipurpose Hall, Delhi University Sports Complex, and the booklet describes a selection committee chaired by the Dean Students' Welfare with the Proctor or a Proctor nominee, two members nominated by the Vice-Chancellor, and the Joint Dean Students' Welfare as member secretary. The application form's own note is blunter about what counts: the selection will be strictly based on the interview and letter of recommendation.

The odds are visible because Delhi University publishes both ends of the funnel.

Delhi University shortlists broadly and selects narrowly, so a notice with your name in it is an invitation to compete rather than a result. The group discussion for the part-time 2026 round was spread over four mornings, from 8 to 11 September 2026, with reporting at 9:00 AM by serial number (Part-Time 2026 group discussion notice).

Fine print

Terms & conditions

Class attendance is not traded off against the internship. The booklet states that the requirement of attendance in the registered or enrolled course will not be relaxed because of an internship, which is the constraint behind the part-time track's 8 to 10 hours a week (VCIS scheme booklet).

The scheme is also explicitly amendable. The Dean's office reserves the right to edit, amend, add or review any of the provisions, schemes and processes of VCIS at any time, with the change uploaded on the DSW website. In practice that is how the part-time 2026 round both moved its deadline and relaxed its repeat bar mid-cycle, so the notice for your round overrides any older description of the scheme.

Get help

Contact

The Dean Students' Welfare office is the only address for VCIS queries. It sits at the Conference Centre, opposite the Botany Department, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007, and the booklet lists dsw@du.ac.in and office@dsw.du.ac.in (VCIS scheme booklet). Round notices are signed by the Dean Students' Welfare and carry the same email.

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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