The School of Undergraduate Studies is committed to the pursuit of a liberal arts pedagogy with a progressive orientation. In addition, the new curricular framework released by the UGC encourages the overlap of theory and practice in higher education; along with the stress on skill-building and practical knowledge. The BA Political Science Program at AUD, through its unique combination of courses (both disciplinary and inter-disciplinary) as well as skill-enhancement and research-based courses will fulfil these aims. Students will have multiple exit options with the possibility of re-joining the program after a gap. After one-year students may exit with a Certificate, after two years with a Diploma. However, the default options will be three or four years. The students of the programme can choose to complete three years leading to a BA (H) degree in Political Science or an academic degree with a research component in the fourth year leading to a BA (Honours with Research) in Political Science. The graduates will be well placed to work with a variety of employers and professional settings. They will also be well placed to continue in higher education in any of the disciplines of social sciences and humanities, especially politics, political economy, political philosophy, international relations, public policy, global studies and similar programmes.

Total seats for this program are as follows:

	Supernumerary Seats
Total Seats (Excluding Supernumerary Seats)	Foreign Students	Single Girl Child	Kashmiri Migrants	CCA Sports	Orphan
44	7	1	1	1	2

VISION

The BA (H) Political Science programme envisions nurturing socially conscious, analytically rigorous, and ethically grounded graduates equipped to engage with contemporary political challenges. It is rooted in a liberal arts framework and aligned with national educational reforms. The programme integrates disciplinary depth with interdisciplinary exposure, research orientation and skill enhancement. It aims to foster critical inquiry, democratic values and global awareness while strengthening engagement with Indian intellectual traditions, governance practices and public policy preparing students for leadership and responsible citizenship

For details of the revised FYUP Credit and Curriculum Framework applicable for admissions from 2026

FACULTY INVOLVED IN TEACHING THE PROGRAMME.

Contractual/Guest Faculties

Dr.Pawan Kumar
Dr.Apra Vaidya
Dr.Neha Sinha
Dr.Parth
Dr.Ruby Madhyan
Dr.Brijesh Chandra Srivastava
Dr.Iqra Afreen
Dr.Micheal Lunminthang
Ms.Iqra Afreen
Dr.Dasharath Singh
Dr.Ranveer Singh Solanki
Dr.Rahul Kundu
Mr.Lalit Sanwal

EXISTING STRUCTURE (Applicable for students admitted from 2023 to 2025)

For BA (H) Political Science Program, the following UGCF framework from the proposed schemes of the AUD Undergraduate Curriculum Framework 2022.

Below is an excerpt from the draft NHEQF that is relevant at the UG level.

UGCF for a Single Discipline Major in Political Science

Sem	DSC	EL/AEO/GE/DSE	AEC/SE/AEO/GE		AEC/CES	Total Credits
I	DSC1 (4)	EL1/AEO1 (4)	AEC1/SE1 (4)		AEC2/ CES1	20
					(4)
		AEO2 (4)
II	DSC2 (4)	EL2 /AEO3 (4)	SE1/AEC1 (4)		CES1/AEC2	20
	DSC3 (4)				(4)
Students on exit have to complete a 6-credit internship (2 months) and a 4- credit VBE. Award- Undergraduate Certificate (in the single discipline)						40
III	DSC4 (4)	EL3/GE1 (4)	AEC3/(SE2/AEO4) (4)		-	20
	DSC5 (4)
	DSC6 (4)
IV	DSC7 (4)	EL4/GE2 (4)	(SE2/AEO4)/AEC3 (4)		-	20
	DSC8 (4)
	DSC9 (4)
Students on exit have to complete a 6-credit internship (2 months) and a 4- credit VBE. Award- Undergraduate Diploma (in the single discipline)						80
V	DSC10 (4)	DSE1 (4)	GE3 (4)		-	20
	DSC11 (4)	DSE2/EL5 (4)
VI	DSC12 (4)	DSE3 (4)	GE4/DSE7 (4)		-	20
	DSC13 (4)	DSE4/EL6 (4)
Students on exit should have completed a 6-credit internship (2 months) and they should have completed a 4-credit VBE within their period of study. Award- Bachelor’s Degree (in the single discipline)						120
VII	DSC14 (4)	DSE3/GE/EL (12)		Research Methodology related to Discipline Major (4) (DSC)		20
VIII	DSC15 (4)	DSE3/GE/EL (12)		Research Project Report /Seminar Paper/s in the Discipline Major (6) (DSC)		22
Award- Bachelor’s Degree (Hons) (in the single discipline) or Bachelor’s degree with Research (in the single discipline). For the Bachelor’s degree with Research (in the single discipline) the student will be required to choose 8 DSEs. The DSEs in the 4^th-year could also include course/s on Development of project/research proposal, review of related literature or studies and collection of the required data, research internship. Further the student will have to do a research project and submit a research project report. For the Bachelor’s Degree (Hons) (in the single discipline) the student would also do seminar paper/s worth 6 credits in the Discipline Major and will be required to take at least one DSE.						162

Notes:

Those students who have been diagnosed with requiring extra help in English will be compulsorily assigned the English Proficiency Course as SE1 in the AEC1/SE1 slot.
AEC (1/2/3) will be Hindi (at the appropriate diagnostic level), English for Academic Purposes and the compulsory course on Environment respectively.
In the Three-year BA degree programme with single discipline major all students will do
- 52 credits of compulsory courses from the discipline major and 8 credits of elective courses from the discipline. They will definitely do 60 credits (50% weightage) of courses from their discipline major. They could additionally take a further 12 credits through optional choices within their discipline.
- Three compulsory Ability Enhancement Courses: English, Hindi and Environment, each of 4 credits totalling to 12 credits.
- One Ability Enhancement Optional Course of 4 credits. They could do an additional 12 credits of AEOs by choosing AEO options.
- One Skill Enhancement Course of 4 credits. They could do an additional 4 credits of SEs by choosing SE options.
- One Generic Elective Course of 4 credits. They could do an additional 12 credits of GEs by choosing GE options.
- The EL 1-6 option would allow a student to earn a minor in a discipline if they choose DSCs worth 24 credits from a single discipline different from their major. Further, change of Major may be facilitated in the 2^nd Semester if the concerned student does well in EL1 of the major they wish to change to, based on prior application and meeting all requirements posited by the respective programme committees.
In the Four-year BA degree with research in a single discipline all students will do
- 60 credits of compulsory courses from the discipline major, and 32 credits of elective courses from the discipline major. They will definitely do 92 credits of courses from their discipline major. Further, 10 credits will cover a research methodology course related to their discipline major of 4 credits and 6 credits of a Research Project Report. Thus 102 credits (over 60% weightage) would be from their discipline major. They could additionally take a further 12 credits through optional choices within their discipline in the first three years.
- The fact that the 4^th year amounting to 42 credits is spent entirely on the discipline major compares well with the first year of a two-year Masters programme in the discipline major.
- In the Four-year BA (Hons) degree in a single discipline all students will do 60 credits of compulsory courses from the discipline major, and 12 credits of elective courses from the discipline major. Further, 10 credits will cover a research methodology course related to their discipline major of 4 credits and 6 credits for seminar paper/s in their discipline major. They will definitely do 82 credits (50% weightage) of courses from their discipline major. They could additionally take a further 12 credits through optional choices within their discipline in the first three years. Those who have taken EL 1-6 in a single (minor) discipline other than their major would continue to have an opportunity to take up to 5 ELs in the same (minor) discipline in their 4th year.

Abbreviations and types of academic courses

The following types of courses/academic engagements are envisaged in the AUD UGCF:

Discipline specific core (DSC): These are the compulsory discipline specific courses.
Elective (EL): DSC of a discipline other than the student’s major.
Discipline specific elective (DSE): These are elective discipline specific courses.
Generic elective (GE): These are courses that are interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary in nature.
Ability enhancement
- Ability enhancement compulsory (AEC): These will be the compulsory ability enhancement courses. (English, Hindi and Environment)
- Ability enhancement optional (AEO): These are optional ability enhancement courses and could cover sustainable development, global citizenship, courses like Understanding India, Introduction to Social Sciences and Humanities, Nature of Science, Logic and Reasoning etc.
Skills enhancement (SE): These will be a basket of courses aimed at improving skills and fostering vocational training. These could include courses on Python Programming, Artificial Intelligence, Data Analysis amongst others that come from vocational training.
Value based education (VBE): These will be a basket of courses aimed at imparting value- based education. These could include courses on Happiness, Yoga, Health and Well-being, Desh Bhakti (Indian Constitution and Democracy) etc.
Community engagement and service (CES): This will involve courses and field-based engagements developed by the Centre for Outreach and Extension.

The above framework maintains a strong disciplinary core while at the same time allowing the student to have a broad base through compulsory language and environment components. Community service and value-based education are also taken care of via compulsory components. The large number of choices available in Ability Enhancement Optional courses, Skill Enhancement courses, Generic Electives both via compulsory components and choices, will allow the student to build their knowledge of social sciences and humanities, the natural sciences and provide an interdisciplinary flavour. This structure, while admitting a student to a major, is also flexible to allow the student to change their major during the programm of study. It takes care of the core ideals of the NEP, NHEQF, UGC FYUP while ensuring that disciplinary major requirements are not diluted.

Another important point it takes care of is the fact that for 75% of UG students, the three-year undergraduate degree will be a terminal degree. While such students will do 50% of their courses from their major discipline, they can choose to do the other 50% from courses not related to their discipline but from other areas that may be of interest or those that improve their employment prospects.

The 4^th year also maintains a good balance between disciplinary major requirement and other interests so as to allow a student to make the choice of whether they wish to pursue a higher degree within their discipline major or to move into other areas during their higher studies or find employment after their 4 -year degree

COURSES

List of Courses offered 2023-2025:

1^st Semester
Sr. No.	Course	Course Code	Type of Course
1.	Political Theory	NSUS1PO601	DSC
2.	Human Rights in India	AEO50(HR)	AEO
2^nd Semester
Sr. No	Course	Couse Code
1.	Indian Constitution	NSUS1PO602	DSC
2	Politics in India	NSUS1PO603	DSC
3^rd Semester
Sr. No	Course	Couse Code
1.	Western Political Thought	NSUS1PO604	DSC
2	State Politics in India	NSUS1PO605	DSC
3	Comparative Government and Politics	NSUS1PO606	DSC
4	Globalization and Politics	NSUS1GE002	GE
4^th Semester
Sr. No	Course	Couse Code
1.	Indian Political Thought	NSUS1PO607	DSC
2	International Relations	NSUS1PO608	DSC
3	Public Administration	NSUS1PO609	DSC
4	Understanding Ambedkar	NSUS1GE008	GE
5^th Semester
Sr. No.	Course	Course Code
1.	India’s Foreign Policy	NSUS1PO610	DSC
2.	Public Policy	NSUS1PO611	DSC
3.	Colonialism and Nationalism in India	NSUS1PO631	DSE
4.	Party Politics in India	NSUS1PO632	DSE
5.	Feminism: Theory and Practice	NSUS1GE001	GE
6^th Semester
Sr. No.	Course	Course Code
1.	International Governance and Institutions	NSUS1PO612	DSC
2.	Introduction to Research Methodology	NSUS1PO613	DSC
3.	Social and Political Movements in Contemporary India	NSUS1PO633	DSE
4.	Diaspora and Migration	NSUS1GE009	GE
7^th Semester
Sr. No.	Course	Course Code
1.	Introduction to Global International Relations: Non-Western Perspective	NSUS1PO614	DSC
2.	Research Methods for Political Science	NSUS1PO615	DSC
3.	Citizenship in Transition: Origins, Development, and Contemporary Global Context	NSUS1PO634	DSE
4.	Democracy, Governance and Development: The Indian Experience	NSUS1PO635	DSE
5.	Peace and Conflict Studies	NSUS1PO636	DSE
8^th Semester
Sr. No.	Course	Course Code
1.	International Political Economy	NSUS1PO616	DSC
2.	Dissertation	NSUS1PO617	DSC
3.	Seminar Paper- Perspectives of Political Philosophy: Emphasis on Indian Intellectual Traditions	NSUS1PO618	DSC
4.	Environment, Governance, and Public Policy	NSUS1PO637	DSE
5.	Multilateral Governance and Organizations	NSUS1PO638	DSE
6.	Introduction to Global Justice	NSUS1PO639	DSE

To develop a strong foundation in core areas of political science including political theory, Indian politics, international relations and public administration.
To demonstrate critical thinking and analytical skills to interpret political institutions, processes, and contemporary developments.
To apply qualitative and quantitative research methods to conduct independent academic inquiry and field-based research.
Interpret and evaluate constitutional principles, democratic practices and governance structures in India and globally.
To analyse public policies and assess their social, economic and political implications.
Engage with classical and contemporary political thought including Indian intellectual traditions.
Examine global political economy, multilateral institutions and international governance frameworks.
Develop effective written and oral communication skills for debates, presentations and policy briefs.
To demonstrate ethical reasoning and social responsibility in matters of citizenship, justice and human rights.
Integrate interdisciplinary perspectives linking politics with history, economics, sociology and philosophy.
Acquire practical skills through internships, community engagement and value-based education components.
To prepare for higher education, research, civil services, policy institutions, media, NGOs and international organizations.

What is the minimum eligibility requirement for this programm?

Candidates must qualify the CUET examination for the subject.

What is the duration of the programm?

This is a four-year programm with the option of multiple exits after one year (Certificate), two years (Diploma), three years (UG Degree), and four years (UG Degree with Honours/Research, subject to fulfilling the eligibility criteria for Research Degree).

How is it positioned in relation to other similar programms in the field?

It is distinct from many traditional political science degrees in India because it integrates core disciplinary knowledge with interdisciplinary electives, skill-enhancement modules, and optional research components, unlike most programmes that focus narrowly on discipline content. This liberal arts orientation broadens analytical, methodological, and practical skills, aligning it more closely with contemporary, research-oriented, and policy-relevant undergraduate education.

What are the program-specific graduate attributes?

Graduates of the BA (H) Political Science programme at AUD develop critical analytical skills to interpret political phenomena, theoretical grounding in comparative and normative politics, and research competencies including qualitative and quantitative methods. They gain communication and argumentation skills through writing and debate, ethical reasoning in public affairs, and interdisciplinary awareness linking politics with economics, history, and society. For example, a student can critically assess election data, write policy briefs on federalism, and conduct small-scale field research on urban governance. These attributes prepare graduates for informed citizenship and advanced academic or professional work.

What are the professional trajectories that the graduates of the programm may pursue?

Graduates of BA (H) Political Science can pursue diverse careers. They may enter public service through civil services or state administrative roles, or work in policy analysis at think tanks. Others find roles in media and communications as political editors or analysts, or in NGOs and advocacy focusing on human rights, education, or environmental policy. Some pursue academia and research, enrolling in MA/PhD programmes in political science, public policy, or international relations. Graduates may also work in international organisations (e.g., UN roles), corporate public affairs, or election consulting