This research explores the potential of the Youth Fellowship Program (YFP) as a supplementary urban educational intervention to formal higher education. The findings highlight the significance of the YFP as a crucial element in enabling research-oriented, problem-focused and action-oriented urban education. Such an approach complements formal urban higher education and addresses existing gaps, making contemporary urban education more responsive to the challenges faced in urban settings. Firstly, the programme recognises critical gaps in the contemporary higher education curriculum, ensuring that essential dimensions of Indian urbanisation, including vulnerability, inequality, access to basic services, urban poverty and informal employment, receive due recognition. Secondly, the YFP acts as a bridge between formal and informal education systems, establishing strong feedback loops within the learning ecosystem and facilitating the integration of practical knowledge into formal higher education. Thirdly, the YFP places human agency at the core of its transformative agenda. By prioritising core constitutional principles in education and providing space for vulnerable and marginalised youth to become YFP fellows, the programme aligns with representation issues, ensuring inclusivity and fostering empowerment among the learners. Fourthly, the YFP structurally demonstrates its effectiveness in addressing multiple interdependencies inherent in various urban development agendas. Unlike discipline and skill-focused higher education systems in India, the programme enables a holistic approach where YFP can engage with challenges in areas like healthcare and navigate a suite of interconnected development issues. Finally, the research emphasises the YFP’s participatory processes of learning as an iterative and dynamic approach. Such participatory learning fosters an empowering environment and emphasises learning as a continual journey rather than a mere end point.