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Shiv Nadar University Delhi-NCR has launched India’s first BA (Research) in Interdisciplinary Humanities and Social Sciences (IHS) – a four-year degree that aims to do something unusual in Indian higher education: provide the comprehensiveness of a liberal arts program without the academic drift that often comes with a completely free choice.
In conversation with HT Digital, Vice Chancellor Prof. Ananya Mukherjee said that the idea of the program came from three different constituencies who surprisingly wanted the same thing. “Bright school students who excel in all subjects but don’t want to be limited to a traditional degree. Parents who want a meaningful education but worry about employability. And employers who keep saying: knowledge is fine, but what can students really do?” He said.
The result is a program that blends humanities, social sciences, STEM, technology, and applied learning – designed to produce graduates who can think about a variety of disciplines and apply their skills in real-world settings.
A structured, not scattered, interdisciplinary path
Pro. Mukherjee is clear that IHS is not a liberal arts degree where students roam freely among unrelated courses. The structure is intentional.
In the first year, the entire group studies a common foundation—ethics, philosophy, writing, computational thinking, history, and quantitative methods. In the second year only students enter one of three interdisciplinary majors:
stability study
Archaeology, Heritage and Historical Studies
Society, Culture, Technology
Each major is co-designed and co-taught by faculty from different fields – an archaeologist with a mathematician, an engineer with a sociologist – ensuring that students look at problems from multiple lenses.
“We wanted to strike the right balance,” she said. “Enough structure so students don’t feel scattered, and enough flexibility so they can explore.”
AI from day one, and ‘experiential’ in every course
One of the standout features is the three-year compulsory AI module. Students start with foundations in the first year, move to applied AI in the second and design independent AI-powered projects in the third.
“AI can read documents or analyze data, but interpreting, contextualizing and making decisions – these remain human,” Professor Mukherjee said. “We want our students to be able to use AI and think beyond that.”
Each course also includes an experiential component—laboratory work, field study, practitioner-led sessions, internships, or project-based learning.
The university’s infrastructure supports:
a dedicated archeology laboratory
a virtual reality laboratory
an ai center
Campus-Based Sustainability Projects
Access to the wider Shiv Nadar ecosystem, including The Habitats Trust and Kiran Nadar Museum of Art
Aligned with NEP, driven by employability
This program fits perfectly within the National Education Policy’s emphasis on four-year degrees, interdisciplinarity, research and global competitiveness. But for SNU, the real emphasis is on employability.
Employers are expecting graduates to articulate what they bring to a team – whether it’s contributing to a sustainability report, understanding digital transformation in SMEs, or analyzing data for a policy brief, said Professor Mukherjee. Being located in Greater Noida gives the university access to industry and corporate think tanks, and tie-ups with organizations like CII help students work on live projects.
Who is this degree for?
Students from any stream can apply. The university is looking for learners who are curious, comfortable navigating multiple fields, and excited by both technology and the humanities.
The annual tuition fee is 6 lakhs, and hostel and mess charges come a little more 2 lakh per year, as it is a completely residential program. For this degree alone, SNU is offering 10 full four-year scholarships, with its extensive financial aid options.
Graduates can branch out into corporate sustainability roles, heritage and museum work, policy analysis, legal-tech, communications, public administration, or pursue higher studies including master’s, PhD, MBA or UPSC. “The program opens more doors than it closes,” he said.
At a time when the job market is rapidly changing and AI is redefining skill boundaries, SNU’s IHS program positions itself as a structured, future-ready alternative to the traditional BA degree. Professor Mukherjee said, “The strongest guarantee we can give students today is deep knowledge, broad skills and the ability to integrate technology with society. This is where the leadership of tomorrow will come from.”
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