01
The largest degree, the least direction
The Bachelor of Arts is where India's undergraduates are. It is also the degree that says least about what its graduate will do next. A student of engineering, commerce or nursing leaves college pointed at a field of work. A student of history, political science or sociology usually leaves with a subject and no route out of it, and finds the route on their own, often by buying coaching on top of the degree.
Undergraduate enrolment by discipline, 2021-22
Arts is India's most-enrolled undergraduate discipline, by a wide margin.
All India Survey on Higher Education 2021-22 · Ministry of Education, via PIB
The survey counted about 4.33 crore students in higher education in 2021-22. At the undergraduate level, arts accounted for more than twice the share of science, commerce or engineering. Any reform that improves outcomes for arts graduates reaches more students than a reform of any other single discipline.
Young graduates face the highest unemployment of any group, and it falls sharply with age.
State of Working India 2023 · Azim Premji University, Centre for Sustainable Employment, using PLFS 2021-22 · reported by Scroll
Unemployment among graduates under 25 stood at 42.3%, against 8.7% for the workforce overall. For graduates aged 35 and above it was below 5%. The problem is concentrated in the years just after college: the time it takes to turn a degree into a first job.
Read with care. The figure covers graduates of all disciplines, not arts alone, and part of it reflects young people who are still preparing for competitive examinations rather than looking for other work.
Fewer than half of graduates are assessed as employable, and non-technical roles have slipped.
India's Graduate Skill Index 2025 · Mercer | Mettl · reported by Business Standard
The index put graduate employability at 42.6% in 2025, down from 44.3% in 2023. Employability for non-technical roles fell further, from 48.3% to 43.5%. These are the roles that humanities graduates most often enter.
Read with care. This is an assessment-based index from a private testing firm, not a labour-market survey, and it does not publish a separate figure for arts graduates.
Our reading
The BA carries the most students and gives them the least direction. The humanities are not the weakness. The weakness is a degree that teaches a subject without organising it around work that needs doing.
02
The State is hiring, and the queue is long
Government employment is the single most common goal among humanities students, and the examinations that lead to it test exactly what the humanities teach: the Constitution, history, society, the economy, ethics and clear writing. India has built a large parallel industry of coaching to meet that demand. Almost none of it counts towards a degree.
About one in 980 applicants to the Civil Services Examination is finally recommended.
Civil Services Examination 2025 result highlights · UPSC, via PIB
9,37,876 candidates applied and 5,76,793 sat the Preliminary examination. 958 were recommended for appointment. For nearly everyone who prepares, the years of preparation have to be worth something without the final result.
The same pattern repeats below the civil services, at a much larger scale.
SSC Combined Graduate Level Examination 2025 · Staff Selection Commission data, reported by Adda247
28,15,445 candidates applied for 14,582 graduate-level central government posts, roughly 193 applicants per vacancy. State public service commissions add several lakh more aspirants each year.
Read with care. Applicant numbers are drawn from a coaching-industry report of the Commission's figures; many candidates apply to several examinations, so totals across exams overlap.
The government itself now treats policy competence as something to train continuously.
Mission Karmayogi, iGOT Karmayogi platform · All India Radio News, May 2025
The national programme for civil-services capacity building crossed one crore registered civil servants in May 2025, with more than 2,400 courses in 16 languages, up from about three lakh users in January 2023. The State is investing in the same competencies a policy degree would build before recruitment.
Our reading
Preparation for government work is already a full second education in India. Built into the degree, with credits and assessment, those years count towards a recognised qualification instead of being spent outside one.
03
Policy work outside government
A public policy education is not only an examination strategy. The same skills, reading evidence, writing a clear brief, understanding how institutions and budgets work, are in demand wherever public money, regulation or social programmes are involved: in research institutions, development organisations, corporate social responsibility, consulting and public affairs.
Companies now spend over ₹34,000 crore a year on mandated social programmes.
Written reply in Parliament, Ministry of Corporate Affairs · PIB, February 2026
Reported CSR expenditure rose from ₹24,966 crore in 2019-20 to ₹34,909 crore in 2023-24, and totalled ₹1,44,159 crore over five years. Every programme funded this way has to be designed, run, monitored and evaluated.
Read with care. Spending is not the same as jobs. We cite it as a measure of the scale of programme work that needs people trained in policy, not as a count of openings.
India has the third-largest number of think tanks in the world.
Global Go To Think Tank Index 2020 · University of Pennsylvania, reported by ThePrint
Only the United States and China had more. Policy research organisations recruit graduates who can read data, write for decision-makers and understand how the State works.
Read with care. The count dates from the index's 2020 edition and depends on how the index defines a think tank.
Our reading
A graduate who does not clear an examination should still leave college employable. A policy degree gives the aspirant a plan B that uses the same training, instead of a second start.
04
The framework already asks for it
India's education policy already describes the degree we are proposing. NEP 2020 calls for undergraduate education that is multidisciplinary, flexible about entry and exit, and useful for work. The regulations that followed it give universities the structures to build such a degree now.
NEP 2020 asks for holistic, multidisciplinary undergraduate education.
National Education Policy 2020 · salient features published by the University Grants Commission
The policy describes an education meant to "develop all capacities of human beings" in an integrated way. It sets out a three- or four-year undergraduate degree with certified exits along the way, an Academic Bank of Credits, and an education that prepares students for work and economic independence.
The system has to grow by crores of students, and many will enter arts programmes.
NEP 2020 target · UGC; current GER from AISHE 2021-22 · PIB
The policy aims to raise the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education from 26.3% in 2018 to 50% by 2035. It stood at 28.4 in 2021-22. Whether the new students gain direction or only a certificate depends on how degrees like the BA are designed.
05
What a public policy degree should do
This section is our view, drawn from teaching civil-services aspirants for more than a decade and from running the first cohort of our degree. It is a set of design principles, not a course list.
06
Sources
- Ministry of Education, All India Survey on Higher Education 2021-22, press release, PIB.
- Azim Premji University, State of Working India 2023, as reported by Scroll.
- Mercer | Mettl, India's Graduate Skill Index 2025, as reported by Business Standard.
- UPSC, Civil Services Examination 2025 result highlights, PIB.
- SSC CGL 2025 applications and vacancies, Adda247.
- iGOT Karmayogi crosses one crore registered civil servants, All India Radio News.
- Ministry of Corporate Affairs, CSR expenditure FY 2019-20 to 2023-24, PIB.
- University of Pennsylvania, Global Go To Think Tank Index 2020, as reported by ThePrint.
- University Grants Commission, Salient Features of NEP 2020: Higher Education.