'St Stephen's launches spl centre to offer various courses on public policies'

Delhi University's St Stephen's College on Saturday launched a special centre to conduct a series of certificate and advanced level courses across a range of disciplines, starting with a short-term certificate course on Public Policy and International Relations (PPIR).

The St Stephen's Centre for Advanced Learning (SCAL), launched on Saturday, will start with offering a certificate course on Public Policy and International Relations, to be held over six weekends at the college, an official statement said.

Other discipline-specific courses have also been planned and announcements regarding this will be made soon on the college website, it added.

The SCAL's PPIR course is designed to help young graduates gain a better understanding of the field, "how it is framed, theorised, formulated and implemented", it said.

The first batch of participants include entry-to-mid-senior level professionals from the fields of banking, development, consultancy, NGOs, politics and healthcare.

The course will engage with topics in policy formation, development and implementation, policy economics, international relations, international security and diplomacy among others.

The SCAL will draw on the intellectual resources of its alumni, many of whom have vast experience in this field, across government ministries, departments and corporate boardrooms, it said.

These will include several current and former ambassadors, bureaucrats and leaders from a host of fields.

The list of resource persons for the course include, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, diplomat and MP Mani Shanker Aiyer, and NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant among others.

The inaugural programme took place in the college on Saturday during which Tharoor delivered the inaugural lecture.