IIT Kharagpur and upGrad have expanded their online executive education portfolio in artificial intelligence from four to seven programmes, after what the partners describe as threefold quarter-on-quarter growth in enrolments. The figures were published in a release issued from Kharagpur on 30 September 2026. The partners did not disclose how many learners have enrolled, which quarters the growth figure compares, the fees charged or how revenue is shared.
The IIT Kharagpur and upGrad executive AI programmes, online executive education taught live by institute faculty, have moved from launch to expansion within six months. This story sets out what the two partners have disclosed so far, and what they have not.
The collaboration was announced in April 2026 and is the institute’s first online executive education portfolio, according to the release.
What the partners reported
The release says learners have joined from 133 cities in India and from seven other countries: the UAE, the US, the UK, Germany, Canada, Australia and Kuwait. The median learner has 12 years of work experience and nearly 63% have more than a decade, the partners say. Bengaluru is the largest source of learners, followed by Hyderabad and Pune, and technology services, consulting and financial services account for nearly half of the learner base.
Participants include staff from employers such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro, JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Citi, Deloitte and Accenture, the release says, in roles from engineering managers and tech leads to vice presidents. It does not say whether employers are paying for places.
More than 95% of enrolled learners have activated their accounts and started learning, according to the partners. The release says completion and certification metrics will become available as the earliest cohorts progress, so no outcome data has yet been published.
The programmes
The portfolio launched with four programmes covering generative AI, AI-native software engineering, applied AI and machine learning, and technology and AI leadership. Three have been added: building AI products, systems and services; applied data science and agentic AI; and fintech and AI. The Executive Post Graduate Certificates in Generative AI and Agentic AI and in Applied AI and Machine Learning are the fastest growing, the partners say.
upGrad’s course page for the generative AI certificate says sessions are taught live by IIT Kharagpur faculty and that learners receive a certificate of completion from IIT Kharagpur and upGrad. upGrad describes itself as a skilling company that helps Indian and global universities offer diplomas, master’s degrees and executive doctorates, with degrees awarded solely by the universities.
Our partnership with upGrad reflects this commitment by bringing IIT Kharagpur’s academic depth to professionals at scale.
Prof. Suman Chakraborty, Director, IIT Kharagpur
Anuj Vishwakarma, CEO of higher education programmes at upGrad, said: “What has been particularly encouraging is the strong demand for specialised, role-aligned learning, which has led us to expand the portfolio from four to seven programmes within months of launch.”
IIT Kharagpur and upGrad executive AI programmes: online executive education fees and format
The release gives no prices, but upGrad’s own course pages do. The page for the Executive Post Graduate Certificate in Generative AI and Agentic AI lists an eight-month programme priced at 2,500 US dollars for international visitors, with live classes on Saturday mornings taught by faculty from the institute’s computer science and engineering department. The next cohort is dated 31 December 2026, and the top tenth of each cohort receives a certificate with distinction.
Entry requires an engineering or science degree with at least 50% marks, and applicants from other backgrounds can be considered with two years of relevant technology experience. Pricing for the IIT Kharagpur and upGrad executive AI programmes, online executive education sold internationally as well as in India, is published course by course rather than for the portfolio as a whole, and the partners have not disclosed a combined figure.
How the partnership began
The first four IIT Kharagpur and upGrad executive AI programmes, online executive education offered during the institute’s platinum jubilee year, were announced on 13 April 2026, according to the trade title IT Voice, which carried the launch release. Two of the four sit in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, one in the Department of AI and one in the Partha Ghosh School of Leadership. The launch material promised a phased expansion over the following three to six months, a promise kept by the three additions announced in September.
Prof. Chakraborty said at the launch that the offering was “designed for practitioners who seek true capability, not just exposure”.
The company behind the platform
upGrad was launched on 23 March 2015 by Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar and Phalgun Kompalli, according to its own corporate history, which also records a valuation of 1.2 billion US dollars when the company reached unicorn status in 2021. The same page says the company has crossed ten million enrolments across more than 100 countries and names upGrad Education Private Limited as the operating entity. Those are the company’s own figures: upGrad is privately held, and the page gives no revenue.
Partner institutions named on the page include IIIT Bangalore, IIM Kozhikode, Liverpool John Moores University and Golden Gate University, which places the IIT Kharagpur portfolio among the most prominent institutional tie-ups the company lists.
What it means
TED analysis:
- For university leaders: a growth multiple without a base number says little about scale. Institutes weighing similar online executive partnerships should ask for absolute enrolments, completion rates and the revenue split before treating this as a model.
- For edtech companies: the learner profile, mid-career staff at large IT and finance employers, points university-partnership businesses towards experienced professionals rather than recent graduates. That market rewards a strong institutional brand and faculty-led teaching, both of which upGrad foregrounds here.
- For the Gulf: learners in the UAE and Kuwait show that an IIT-branded online certificate can recruit in the region without a branch campus. Indian institutes considering physical campuses in the Gulf now have an online route to test demand first.
- For investors: the claims so far concern enrolment and activation. Completion and career outcome data, which the partners say will come later, will be the better test of whether demand holds.
