Allied Human Values Courses

UHV is a value-education curriculum developed by AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) and offered in two forms: a compulsory credit course (“Human Values & Ethics”) and a full Minor Degree in Universal Human Values. It's built into the model curriculum for engineering and technical colleges across India, aiming to develop a holistic perspective of life alongside technical education.

UHV's foundation is the philosophy of Madhyasth Darshan (Coexistentialism), propounded by Shri A. Nagraj. AICTE adopted a Human Values course based on “Jeevan Vidya” into its model curriculum; by a December 2015 implementation report, it had reached over 4,000 colleges across 33 universities in 6 states, plus Bhutan. AICTE's own NEP-2020 policy document on UHV cites Nagraj's Jeevan Vidya: Ek Parichaya as core required reading.

Jeevan Vidya / Madhyasth Darshan is the philosophical and conceptual basis of UHV, not a separate or parallel program. University syllabi (AKTU, DBATU, VTU, University of Kota, Pune University and others) list A. Nagraj's books directly as reference texts for their UHV courses, and AICTE's own UHV-V elective is literally titled “Human Values in Madhyasth Darshan.”

Yes, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University (AKTU), Lucknow offers “Human Values in Madhyasth Darshan” as an Open Elective for B.Tech engineering students, with A. Nagraj's own books as prescribed texts. AICTE's UHV-V elective textbook carries the same title.

UHV is not an organizational part of Jeevan Vidya / Madhyasth Darshan; it is run by a separate organization dedicated specifically to UHV in higher education, working in partnership with AICTE. What connects them is philosophical: UHV is one applied, formalized expression of Jeevan Vidya / Madhyasth Darshan, adapted by AICTE for technical higher education. Jeevan Vidya / Madhyasth Darshan itself is the broader philosophy and study process, taught independently through 7-day introductory workshops and longer study programs, of which the AICTE-UHV curriculum represents only a limited part.

UHV facilitators (college faculty) are trained through Faculty Development Programs (FDPs) run by AICTE's designated UHV Nodal and Resource Centres, for example SLIET (Aug 2023) and AISSMS IOIT, Pune (Aug 2025), administered by the dedicated UHV organization in partnership with AICTE, separate from Madhyasth Darshan's own structure. In the initial years, Jeevan Vidya practitioners themselves conducted many of these FDPs to train the first cohorts of faculty; over time, as those faculty became proficient, the training has become self-sustaining and is now largely run by faculty themselves. This is distinct from the Jeevan Vidya Shivir workshops, which independently train facilitators and teachers for the general-public and school track.

AICTE's UHV Minor Degree is designed to develop six attributes in graduates: a holistic vision of life, socially responsible behaviour, environmentally responsible work, ethical human conduct, competence in maintaining health and hygiene, and appreciation/gratitude alongside aspiration for excellence.

Yes. A National Convention on “Human Values through Jeevan Vidya” was held at IIT Delhi (22–24 May 2007) in association with IIT Kanpur and IIIT Hyderabad, attended by 70 vice-chancellors and directors and inaugurated by then-President APJ Abdul Kalam, who referenced Jeevan Vidya as a “crucial input in education” in his 15 August 2006 address to the nation. Internationally, it is taught at the Royal University of Bhutan and has been covered in Bhutanese press.

Yes. Beyond the current UHV courses, AICTE envisions a fuller set of textbooks (UHV I through UHV VIII) under the broader theme of Values, Ethics and Holistic Living, currently under development to expand the curriculum. These UHV books have their foundation in the Madhyasth Darshan – Jeevan Vidya philosophical books written by A. Nagraj.

A UHV Cell is an administrative body that colleges set up (per AICTE guidelines) to implement and coordinate UHV activities on campus, such as inductions, FDPs, and events. A UHV syllabus/course is the actual academic curriculum taught to students, often as a credit course within a specific department. Many institutions have both; this page lists them separately since a college can have one without the other.

The standard AICTE UHV textbook, A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics, was written by a small group of long-time practitioners from IIT Delhi and IIIT Hyderabad who spent years studying Jeevan Vidya / Madhyasth Darshan directly before adapting it into the formal UHV curriculum. This connection was acknowledged publicly by then-President APJ Abdul Kalam in his 2006 Independence Day address to the nation, and the authors' own implementation report documents workshops on Jeevan Vidya conducted at IIIT Hyderabad, along with testimonials, including from Samdong Rinpoche, who described it as “universal human values based on Jeevan Vidya.”