The current higher education system in India is riddled by a statist approach, with both curriculum and faculty at fault. There is a critical need for classical liberal insights in mainstream academic discourse to offer students, our future leaders, an alternative set of ideas and change the climate of opinion towards a set of principles that will really fuel actual growth of this beautiful nation.
Although our youth programs in the past 18 years have proved to be an effective antidote, we believe that the only way in which we can effectively scale up our efforts and impacts is by making inroads into the formal education system. We will therefore partner with three higher education institutions (selected from top 10 programs in Law, Humanities, Engineering, Business and Mass Communication) to offer a credit-based academic course on a liberal approach to public policy to address this gap. We will also launch one online course, which will be open to students from any discipline across the country.
We have been conducting policy training and outreach program engaging over 10,000 individuals on ideas of free markets and individual liberty through the lens of public policy. Since 2012, we’ve been successfully partnering with leading colleges and universities to conduct certificate course on public policy and in Feb 2015 entered formal curriculum by piloting a 30 hour, 2 credits elective on Law & Public Policy for 28 students of Law Faculty, National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkatta. We’ve been approached by four other universities to conduct a similar course. Through these years, we’ve also developed a strong group of faculty.
CCS respectfully requests the Templeton Foundation’s consideration of a USD 5,01,438 grant for 2015-2018 in support of the Centre’s above mentioned initiative. The foundation’s support at this level would significantly assist CCS as it works to change mindsets bringing critical strength to the liberal movement in India.
