Teach For India, a non-profit dedicated to educational equity, has partnered with St Xavier’s College, Mumbai, to introduce a Master’s Degree in Transformational Leadership.

This two-year, four-semester postgraduate program enables selected Teach For India Fellows to pursue advanced studies while continuing their full-time, paid teaching roles in under-resourced schools.

The program is designed to empower Fellows to transform the lives of students from low-income communities while developing their own leadership skills and long-term purpose, as per an official release by the organisation.

Curriculum and focus

The Master’s Degree in Transformational Leadership offers an immersive and rigorous curriculum, covering essential aspects of modern education.

These include classroom culture, data-driven instruction, assessments, education leadership, stakeholder engagement, and community projects. The program also incorporates sessions on arts and sports education, education technology, policy, public sector engagement, and school leadership, among other topics, to prepare Fellows for impactful roles in education.

Leadership development and pilot phase

Shaheen Mistri, Founder and CEO of Teach For India, highlighted the program’s significance, “We are very excited to launch this first-ever Master’s Degree program in partnership with St Xavier’s College. This program will develop our selected Teach For India Fellows into leaders who will not only understand educational inequity in its deepest context but will also possess the knowledge and leadership skills to transform classrooms. We will be running this program as a pilot to begin with, so that we can fine-tune it to serve our Fellows purpose better. We hope that this program enables collective action and empowers the Fellows to build innovative change projects and choose a career path with a deep commitment to educational equity.”

St Xavier’s college partnership

The degree, awarded by St. Xavier’s College — an autonomous institution affiliated with the University of Mumbai, is fully recognised by the University Grants Commission (UGC). It qualifies graduates for higher education pursuits, such as PhDs, jobs requiring postgraduate degrees, or national exams like the UGC-NET, both in India and internationally. The program costs Rs 15,000 per year, with an additional one-time registration fee for non-Mumbai University graduates. Scholarships are available to support Fellows with financial needs.