UGC initiates new changes in UG political science stream

Hyderabad: In a fist of its kind the University Grants Commission's (UGC) initiated new changes that go a long way in the form of seismic changes in the election management and legislative business.

Three years from now, students of undergraduate political science are all set to done new roles as political secretaries and legislature clerks for the MPs, MLAs, MLCs. Besides, they can also work as the Research and Analysis Wings (RAWs) for the political parties.

Reason being, the UGC has unleashed a set up electives in the political science course bring changes in the syllabus, that are all set to open doors to the graduates of political science to choose new careers.

According to the UGC's Learning Outcomes based Curriculum Framework (LOCF) for political science subject has introduced to more electives. The electives would equip the graduate political science students to work as political secretaries or legislative clerks for the MPs, MLAs, MLCs and similar back-end research offices of the political parties.

As per the latest UGC LOCF, the graduate political science students can select an elective that allows them to study how to file election nominations and the technical issues, election campaign and media management and background research to help the people's representatives in legislative debates and so on.

The electives offered as part of the Skill Enhancement Course (SEC) includes, 'Managing Elections and Election Campaign' (MEEC) and 'Legislative Business, Research in Legislation and Legislative Support' (LB&RLLS).

The MEEC elective is intended to given an exposure to the students to a wide range of conceptual and practical issues. This includes electoral democracy, changing nature of elections against the backdrop of the social media and new technologies that the political parties are using in the elections.

At the end of the course, the students are expected to gain theoretical and practical aspects of filing election nominations and the technical issues involved in it. Well versed with to explain the election code of conduct including the ethics to be maintained in expenditure and elections campaign.

Besides, the role of new media and technology involved in election campaign and to gain required skills for media management during the elections.

The module exposes the students to the techniques of man and material resources to manage the elections. And, the course is to familiarise the students with the legislative activities in India both in the States and the Centre and to train them in skills of back-end support to the legislatures and parliamentarians through research inputs to strengthen the legislative business. As part of the same, the students will study to develop proper understanding of the process, procedure and working of the parliament and State legislature and the role of the legislators and the parliamentarians.

That apart, media monitoring, news analysis, and use them in the legislative and policy-making activities. The legislative support to the parliamentarians includes drafting and presentation of bills, stages before becoming a law, providing research inputs to the MPs, MLAs, MLCs to make them effectively contribute to the parliamentary debates and legislative businesses.

To assist the people's representatives on the issues related to the stages of legislative process, legislature control and delegation of powers to the executive, supervising the works from the constituency development funds etc.