Public policy education in India: promises and pitfalls of an emerging disciplinary identity

Despite the surge in global demand over the last few decades, the supply and design of public policy education has been notably concentrated within western and developed country contexts. The same era has not seen a comparable rise in public policy education and accreditation emerging from developing countries that are still unable to fully meet the existing domestic needs for these skills. In India, core public policy education is in its emerging, albeit promising stages. Drawing on several rounds of discussions with academic and administrative Heads of the Department for public policy in tertiary education institutes of India, this paper critically reviews three interrelated themes. Firstly, we illustrate the broad trends along which the discipline’s advancement has progressed, through changing policy and institutional contexts, and emerging policy analysis and public management challenges. Secondly, we explore the demand drivers for policy education and how they have been designed to respond to graduates’ career pathways and emerging job markets. Thirdly, we include a focus on the public policy and public administration faculty composition and their approach towards teaching public policy. Underlining these three emphases, we gauge the extent to which public policy programmes and schools have been influenced by external perspectives and approaches.