CURRICULAR STRUCTURE FOR PGP-DM
The 49-week PGP-DM is divided into 8 Terms of an average of 6 weeks each.
29 Courses (each course will be 10 sessions of two hours spread over the term) offered over the year fall into three clusters
1) Understanding Society and Development
2) Design of Interventions for Social Impact
3) Curated Development Management Courses
In addition, two modules run throughout the year in both formal classroom sessions and workshop mode:
4) Personal Mastery for Development Leadership
5) Writing in the Discipline
Terms 1 and 2: Focus on the Knowing component: Intended to build a deep understanding of development to prepare one as an authentic development professional.
Two-week Realising India immersion: The two week immersion in a district that enables the student to engage with ground realities from multiple perspectives.
Term 3 follows with the question, “What am I going to do about what I saw and felt on the ground? How can I intervene to bring change?” The Term delves into the nuts and bolts of designing an intervention by adopting a unique approach to intervention design that is anchored in a systems approach.
Terms 4 to 8: Focus on management – the what and how of managing a Social Purpose Organisation as well as customised development management courses.
Pedagogy
The teaching-learning process consists of lectures, case studies, workshops, group work, readings, and individual assignments to build the students’ knowledge and application capacities.
An integral part of the pedagogy is a signature component of the PGP-DM - Context-based Collaborative Learning (CBCL). CBCL creates opportunities for students to apply what students have learnt in the classroom in specially designed group work. Collaborative inquiry and co-creation, an integral part of the CBCL process, is supported by learning mentors called Bricoleurs.
Assessment
The assessment process is intended to support the learning journey of the student and drive excellence. Assessment of the student’s learning will be through a combination of
- Class participation
- Graded individual and group assignments
- Quizzes
- Term papers and examinations
- Peer assessment in the collaborative groups
- Assessment by learning mentors (Bricoleurs)
An integral part of ISDM's one year PGP in Development Management is praxis. Two weeks of the program time is spent in the field, as Realising India.
This is a structured experience that will help students to deepen their perspectives and understanding of the ecosystem in which they will work. It will also hone the skills required to apply relevant and appropriate bodies of knowledge to solve problems in social sector.
| TERM 1 | Perspectives on Society and Development | State, Market and Society | Economic Reasoning and Public Policy | Data Analysis for Development Managers | |
| TERM 2 | Preparing for Realising India | Participatory Approaches and Processes | Communication in the Discipline | Understanding State Capabilities | |
| TERM 3 | Intervention Design for Social Impact (IDSI) | Purposeful Program Theory and Monitoring | Monitoring and Evaluation | ||
| TERM 4 | Strategy | Accounting and Financial Management (including Planning, Budgeting, and Costing) | Principles of Marketing | Talent Management | |
| TERM 5* | Development Evaluation | Operations Management for Quality (including Knowledge Management Systems and MIS) | Fund Raising and Resource Mobilisation + Networks and Partnerships | One Elective | |
| TERM 6* | Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability | Communication in the Discipline | Technology and Management | Learning from Leaders | One Elective |
| TERM 7* | Social Development: Impact at Scale | Series of courses by marquee international faculty from top management schools | One Elective | ||
| TERM 8 | Technology for Social Impact at Scale | Strategy and Planning for Scale | |||
*Term 5, 6, and 7 offer two electives each. Students pick one of two electives each term.
Indicative List of Electives
- Financial Responsibility, Control and Risk Management in SPOs
- Social Enterprises
- Marketing, Distribution and Sales Management
- Social Marketing and Digital Marketing
- Management Research
- Design Thinking and Innovation
List of Workshops
- Radical Transformational Leadership
- Personal Mastery for Development Leadership
- Transect Walk
- Story-telling
Realising India is a critical component of the PGP-DM. This is a two-week field component unlike the rest of the program which is classroom-based. This district immersion provides students with an opportunity to understand society and institutions in a district and experience the current reality. This immersion becomes the basis for courses around intervention design for social impact.
Groups of students prepare for Realising India through secondary research and developing the skills required for observation and inquiry. This process builds their ability to understand a context in a systematic, well-designed manner.
