Social and Public Policy

Overview

The Social and Public Policy course at Savitribai Phule Pune University deals with government interventions, affirmative actions; education, health, housing, labour and social protection & services for living a good life for many. The second part on economy and development focuses on critical problems that confront people at large and explore various planning and policy interventions to address or manage them.

Students learn about key principles of socio-economic development, approaches to address major challenges that we face as a society. They develop skills to critically analyze public and social policy using lens of gender and caste. Policy analysis is essential to make democracy stronger with government accountability to the citizens.

The course offers training in policy development and its implementation based on the tools like statistical analysis and economic models. Looking for data in India is tougher; there are many challenges in data: integrity, integration and intelligence. Data is not available, and when available it is not of acceptable accuracy or outdated and old. Data authenticity is another challenge; course will give you exposure to requisite data sources and digital tools.

Career prospects

The need of policy analysts is felt at all levels of governance: union, state, and local levels and all the organs of governance like: executive, legislative, and judiciary. Most of the businesses and non-profit organisations including think tanks recruit policy analysts. Political analysis is also social and political activity and it helps the advocacy of social and economic issues. As the policy analysts are needed by various organisations, there is a great scope for employability.

As the policy analysts are needed by various organisations, there is a great scope for employability. In India, a very few universities offer such courses, but all over the world prestigious universities like Harvard and Oxford offer this degree. This degree is very competitive. Savitribai Phule Pune University can extend its collaboration with governmental and non-governmental agencies. It can also develop a robust policy research centre that can offer research and inputs to various agencies.