Public policy education
Arx Research Circle
Public policy is how a country decides what to build, fund, allow and fix. Arx designs and runs a new degree in Public Policy & Governance inside Indian universities. It prepares graduates for careers in government and in the private sector, and completes the Civil Services syllabus along the way.
Why public policy
Public policy decides where a factory can be built, what a bank may lend, how a hospital is paid, what data a start-up may hold and how a village gets its water. Governments make these choices. Companies, banks, consultancies and NGOs spend their working days inside them. People who understand how such decisions are made, argued and judged are needed on both sides of the table.
For two decades the safe choice was a narrow, outcome-based technical course: learn a tool, get a job. That promise is wearing thin as tools change faster than courses can and as AI takes over routine technical work. What keeps its value is fundamental learning: how institutions work, how economies and societies behave, how to read evidence, write clearly and argue a position.
The humanities always taught this, but rarely aimed it at work. What ought to exist is a new degree that does: public policy as a discipline in its own right, taught from the first semester, leading to careers in government and in the private sector alike.
Government
Union, State and local administration, regulators and public programmes, and the Civil Services themselves.
Private sector
Policy and regulatory roles, public affairs, consulting, banking and markets, technology firms and corporate social responsibility.
Research and development
Think tanks, research institutions and development organisations that design, evaluate and argue for public policy.
Civil Services, completed inside the degree
By the final year, the Civil Services syllabus is covered in full: General Studies, CSAT, Essay, Ethics and the Political Science & International Relations optional, with interview practice. It is credit-bearing, sits in the timetable and is tested every week, so the student prepares once and does not pay twice.
The programme
Built to the UGC four-year undergraduate framework, with a recognised award at every exit point. The partner university awards the degree and keeps academic authority. Arx designs and delivers it: curriculum, faculty in the classroom, textbooks, weekly assessment and a programme office on campus.
In session
We proved the programme on one campus before offering it to another. Every new partner inherits a system that already runs.
Why it matters
Source: UPSC, Civil Services Examination 2025 result highlights, via Press Information Bureau.
Read the research: the case for public policy educationThe people behind it
Director
An acclaimed scholar of Political Science who teaches civil-services aspirants at Jamia Millia Islamia. More than a decade in education, a published author, and a consultant on humanities curriculum and course design for MBD, Arihant and Oswaal. Former strategy consultant at PwC.
Director
A strategist and consultant in the edtech sector for the past decade, associated with Unacademy, Forum IAS, Shubhra Ranjan IAS, Next IAS and many other institutions. A published author.