UPES teams with Salesforce for AI data science degree

UPES has partnered with Salesforce to launch a B.Tech in Computer Science Engineering with a specialisation in Data Science. The agreement also includes a Salesforce Academia Centre of Excellence at the university.

Developed jointly by the university and the software company, the programme will weave AI, data and customer relationship management tools into the curriculum. Students will work with Salesforce technologies from their first year and can pursue Salesforce certifications alongside their degree.

The move reflects a broader push by universities in India to align engineering education more closely with employer demand as businesses expand their use of AI systems. Companies across sectors are seeking workers with practical experience in data, automation and machine learning, increasing pressure on higher education institutions to provide more applied training.

Course design

At the centre of the partnership is what UPES and Salesforce describe as a Triple-C model of co-creating, co-delivering and co-certifying the course. Under this structure, the curriculum will cover enterprise CRM systems, AI applications, data platforms, analytics and automation as part of the degree.

The Centre of Excellence will serve as a base for student training, faculty development, applied research and innovation projects. It will include specialised labs and use a train-the-trainer model intended to help teaching staff keep pace with developments in AI and enterprise software.

Students on the course will have access to tools including Agentforce Sales, Agentforce Service, Data 360, Tableau, Education Cloud and Agentforce. The programme also promises live projects, internship exposure and participation in Salesforce learning communities.

The structure reflects a growing trend in Indian higher education, with universities working more directly with technology companies to embed vendor-specific tools and recognised certificates into formal degree programmes. Supporters say this can narrow the gap between academic learning and workplace expectations, particularly in fast-changing fields such as AI and data science.

UPES has framed the initiative as part of its wider shift towards becoming what it calls an AI-First University. The institution is seeking to integrate emerging technologies across teaching, research, innovation and industry engagement.

The university, based in Uttarakhand, offers graduate and postgraduate courses through seven schools, including engineering, computer science, law, business and design. It has more than 19,100 students, over 1,500 faculty and staff, and an alumni network of more than 40,000.

According to figures cited by the university, UPES ranks 45th among universities in India under the National Institutional Ranking Framework, with separate rankings in law, management and engineering. It also said it was placed in the 501-600 global band in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and ranked fifth in India.

AI skills race

For Salesforce, the partnership extends its push into education and workforce development at a time when AI talent has become a strategic concern for companies and governments alike. The company has been expanding the reach of its training platform and certification pathways as businesses adopt new AI and data products.

India has become an important market in that effort because of its large engineering student base and its role as a supplier of technology talent to domestic and international employers. As AI spending rises, firms are increasingly looking for graduates who can work with specific software environments as well as core computing concepts.

Prof. (Dr.) Abhishek Sinha, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Student Success), UPES, said, "At UPES, we believe that education must evolve as fast as the industries our graduates will enter. Our collaboration with Salesforce is rooted in a shared commitment to producing professionals who are genuinely ready to lead in an AI-driven economy, not just theoretically, but with certified, hands-on capability. What we are building with the Triple-C model and the Centre of Excellence is a foundation for the future-one that will expand across disciplines and set a national benchmark for university-industry co-creation."

Mankiran Chowhan, Managing Director, Salesforce India, said, "AI is fundamentally reshaping how we work, create and innovate, making AI fluency a core capability for the workforce of the future. As India advances its ambition to become a global AI powerhouse, the focus must shift from simply adopting technology to building the talent that can harness it responsibly and at scale. Through our collaboration with UPES, we are reimagining how industry and academia can work together to prepare students for this new reality, combining foundational engineering education with hands-on experience in AI, data and enterprise technologies. The Salesforce Academia Centre of Excellence will help create future-ready talent equipped to drive innovation, productivity and growth across industries."