A gap year that is actually a year of work.
Most gap year programmes sell an experience. This one gives you a placement, a supervisor who expects things of you, and a body of work with your name on it. Three, six, nine or twelve months in Kangra, inside live RISHEE programmes, before university has told you what your subject is.
CIEEL's Field tracks are built for postgraduates and recent graduates. Every year we receive applications from students in the year between school and university who meet none of those criteria and who would nonetheless do well here — often better than they expect, because they arrive before they have been told what they are supposed to think.
Declining them loses candidates who return later anyway. Admitting them quietly into the postgraduate cohort is worse: it lowers the level of the seminar, and it weakens what a CIEEL reference means. So the Pre-University Stream is a third answer — a named route with its own eligibility, its own fee ladder, its own supervision arrangement, and its own designation on every record you leave with. You are not a junior version of a Fellow. You are at the start of something, and the stream is shaped for where you actually are.
A gap year is rarely three months.
The stream runs at four lengths in the field, plus three blended options that combine field and distance months — set out in section B. What is asked of you rises with the time available: three months closes with a documented portfolio, six adds a written paper, and the longer tracks develop that paper for the JiEEL editorial pathway. All figures are net of both scholarships, in USD.
i. Pre-University Foundation
One cycle of the KARCA Spiral, one practice area, one season in the field. Enough to find out what the work actually looks like before you choose a subject.
ii. Pre-University Fellowship
Long enough to see a piece of work through from first survey to something a community can use. The track most gap year students should take if the year allows it.
iii. Pre-University Extended Fellowship
Three quarters of a year. From month seven you may co-supervise short-term arrivals under the same faculty oversight — which is how what you have learned gets consolidated, and what makes the longer tracks worth taking.
iv. Pre-University Practitioner
A full year, a second practice area, and by the end a working knowledge of a Himalayan district that very few people your age will have. Co-supervision from month seven.
Included in every duration: tuition, shared accommodation on campus, three meals a day, all course materials, field transport, supervision, portfolio or paper review, orientation and pre-arrival support. Not included: international flights, Indian visa fee, travel and medical insurance, personal spending.
Part on the ground, part from wherever you go next.
A full year in Kangra does not fit every gap year, and it need not. Each blended option runs twelve months in total, split between the field and distance: months in the field, then months as a Distance Fellow from home or from university, with the same supervisor, the same cohort and the same closing work. The field months are where the relationships are built; the distance months are where the writing gets finished.
Field months are charged at the standard Pre-University rate; distance months at the Distance Fellowship rate. Figures are net of both scholarships.
v. Six and six
Half a year in Kangra, half a year carrying it forward. The most affordable route to a full-year engagement, and the one that fits a gap year ending in a September university start.
vi. Eight and four
More time in the field, less at distance. Long enough on the ground to co-supervise short-term arrivals from month seven, and to see a second practice area.
vii. Nine and three
The deepest field engagement in the stream, with a short tail at distance to finish the writing. Three months of co-supervision from month seven, and time enough for a second practice area.
Blended tracks include their distance months as supervised engagement. The six months of continuing affiliation at no further fee, described below, applies to the field-only tracks. Your visa need only cover the field months, which for some applicants is the deciding advantage.
Two awards, applied in sequence.
A standing award for international fellows, sponsored by EduCARE International. Applied automatically to every track. It is not a discretionary concession and requires no application.
A further award on the post-GlobalPEACE figure, for fellows entering in the year between school and university. Awarded by the admissions committee on request. Requesting it does not affect your selection.
Indian applicants in the same category are supported under the EcoDEVA Scholarship at 75%, as for all CIEEL tracks. Write to us and we will set out the figures.
What you leave with.
A body of real work
Surveys you administered, maps you built, interviews you conducted, materials still in use after you go. Not a certificate of attendance.
A documented portfolio
Reviewed by your supervising fellow and countersigned by a faculty overseer. Something an admissions committee can actually read.
A reference written from evidence
By someone who watched you work for a full term. It says Pre-University Fellow, because that is what you were, and a reference that says what it means carries further than one that blurs it.
The KARCA Spiral
Knowledge, action, reflection, conceptualisation, application. A method you will keep using long after this.
A route into JiEEL
You may submit to the journal on the same terms as any other author. Submission is open on merit; it is neither expected nor promised, which is what makes acceptance worth something.
Six months of continuing affiliation
On a field-only track, you may continue as a Distance Fellow for six months at no further fee, carrying the work through after you have gone home and started university. Blended tracks already include their distance months.
Who this is for.
Students who have completed school and have not yet begun undergraduate study, or who are within twelve months of beginning it. You must be 18 or above on the date of arrival in India; applicants who would be younger are welcome to apply to the Distance Fellowship, which can be based where you are.
Prior field, research, volunteer or work experience is welcome but need not be extensive. A sincere attitude, learning orientation and commitment to community work matter more than credentials. Two referees, one from school and one from work or community.
For the nine and twelve month tracks we ask for written confirmation that your university place is deferred or not yet taken up, so that a placement is not abandoned partway through.
Places are limited to three Pre-University Fellows per intake, and no more than one in five of any cohort. The cap is what keeps the seminar at postgraduate level, and it is reviewed annually rather than case by case.
Before you apply.
Kangra is a district in the Himalayan foothills, not a campus city. Accommodation is shared and simple. Water and power are usually reliable and occasionally not. Field sites are reached on hill roads by local bus and shared jeep. The monsoon runs June to September and changes what is possible.
Food is mostly local and mostly vegetarian. Hindi and Pahari will be spoken around you constantly, and you will pick some up whether you plan to or not. You will be the youngest person in the room and you will be trusted with real work within days.
If that reads as an obstacle, this is not the right programme. If it reads as the point, it is.
For parents. We expect to hear from you and would rather you asked everything now. We hold a written safeguarding policy and a named safeguarding officer, both available for review before your child applies. Guardian contact details and emergency authorisation are held on file whatever the fellow's age. Comprehensive insurance including emergency evacuation and repatriation is required and verified before travel. Maple Leaf Hospital is in Kangra town, and we maintain a documented medical and evacuation protocol with a 24-hour contact reachable by you. Write to [email protected] and we will answer.
When the stream begins.
The Pre-University Stream opens with inaugural placements starting between September and December 2026, joining the September 2026 founding cohort already in the field. Applications for these are reviewed as they arrive. From 2027 the stream follows the standard Field cohort calendar.
Sep–Dec 2026 start
All durations considered, by arrangement, joining the September 2026 founding cohort. Rolling review; applications reviewed within two weeks.
May 2027
Foundation (3 mo) and Fellowship (6 mo). Applications open December 2026; close March 2027.
September 2027
All four durations, including Extended Fellowship (9 mo) and Practitioner (12 mo).
On completion
Six months as a Distance Fellow at no further fee, wherever you have gone next.