Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics - Academic Programmes

Academic Programmes

The mainstay of the Institute is its MA Programme in Economics, which is acknowledged as one of the best in the country. Though the Institute offered the M Phil Programme for about a decade (1978–89), it discontinued the same, perhaps to devote better attention to the MA Programme and the research projects. The PhD Programme, started right from the inception of the Institute, still continues with a highly selective intake and hence a limited output. Several batches of students have been awarded the MA degrees and more than 165 students have obtained their doctoral degrees in different branches of economics since the inception of the Institute.

The goal of the Institute —to conduct research into the economic and political problems of India and train research workers in these subjects— has been reconceptualised over years so as to confine the activities of the Institute to teaching and research in Economics alone, leaving aside the political problems of India. However, the applied and empirical research into Indian economic problems and policy evaluations indirectly encompass the political dimensions as well.

The curricular content of the ongoing MA Economics Programme offers a blend of core and applied optional courses. The student-faculty ratio is 3:1 for the MA Programme. The Institute offers an option of undertaking a Master’s Thesis as one of its subject credits. Thesis course at the MA level is unique to the Institute; established with an aim to sharpen the research skills of students and enabling them to put their theoretical knowledge to practical use. The Institute also provides a one-year diploma computer programme to provide training on various econometric packages.