M.Phil., Ph.D. (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)
M.A. (TISS, Mumbai);
Associate Professor, Jindal School of Government & Public Policy (JSGP)
| vsubramanian@jgu.edu.in | |
| Connect with me | |
| Key Expertise | School and technical higher education systems in contemporary India, vocational education and skills-based training, education policy and development, data and governance |
M.Phil., Ph.D. (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)
M.A. (TISS, Mumbai);
Dr. Vidya Subramanian is a qualitative sociologist who studies public-private interfaces, entrepreneurship and governance in the field of education in post-liberalisation India.
Her research straddles two themes. The first theme explores how corporate philanthropy and non-profit organisations are pushing for technology-based and data-driven reforms in school education. Her published work, a case study of Teach for India, showed how ideas originating in the corporate sector – enterprise, skills, and efficiency – were key to the development of the new common sense about managing education. Her ongoing project follows the elite professionals staffing the non-profit organisations that steer such education programmes and build the case for more widespread reforms.
Her second research theme investigates industry-university collaborations aimed at preparing engineering graduates for a rapidly changing job-market. It takes as its problem the increasingly outdated curriculum in engineering colleges that is unable to match industry requirements, and investigates the various policy measures aimed at creating an entrepreneurial culture amongst students. The project will outline what policies and practices best yield effective collaboration between industry-partners and engineering institutions to produce hireable graduates.
Dr. Subramanian’s research has been published in the Economic & Political Weekly, Contemporary Education Dialogue, International Studies in Sociology of Education and Contemporary South Asia. She received her PhD and MPhil from the Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, during which she was a doctoral fellow at the Transnational Research Group (TRG) of the Max Weber Foundation-German Humanities Institutes Abroad. Prior to joining the Jindal School of Government and Public Policy she taught at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and was a consultant to the Tata Trusts. She holds an MA in Development Studies from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
Gender and Development
Qualitative Research Methods
Education Policy elective courses (focus on higher education, skills, entrepreneurship and governance)
Introductory courses in Sociology for BSc/BA Economics students
Max Weber Stiftung/German Historical Institute London Transnational Research Group Doctoral Fellowship (2014-2017)
University second rank (Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala), BA Communicative English (2002-2005)
Melbourne Global Centre conference grant, 2025 (in collaboration with Amanda Gilbertson (University of Melbourne) and Joyeeta Dey (MAHE Bangalore))
Ministry of Human Resource Development, Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration, 2019-2021 (associated with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, in collaboration with the School of Education and Social Work, University of Sussex)
The Spencer Foundation conference grant, 2019-2020 (associated with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, in collaboration with Ahmedabad University, Rutgers University- New Brunswick and the Centre for Budget and Policy Studies, Bangalore)
United Kingdom-India Education Research Initiative (UKIERI) research grant, 2018 (associated with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai)
Peer reviewer: Contemporary Education Dialogue, Sage journals
Peer reviewer: Journal of South Asian Development, Sage journals
Peer reviewer: Anthropology & Education Quarterly, Wiley journals
Peer reviewer: Jindal Journal of Public Policy
Editor for Teachers, Teaching and Teacher Education Special Section: Contemporary Education Dialogue, Sage Journals (2020-2023)
Comparative Education Society of India (CESI)
India Higher Education Research Network (IHERN)
Development Studies Association UK (DSA)
International Public Policy Association (IPPN)/India Public Policy Network
British Association for International and Comparative Education (BAICE)
British Association for South Asian Studies (BASAS)
Society for Social Studies of Science
Science Technology and Society (STS) India
Co-convenor of the panel: Elite actors, technocracy and social stratification in the Global South: Navigating the hierarchies of “depoliticised” knowledge for development, at the Development Studies Association annual conference at University College, Dublin, July 8 – 10, 2026. (In collaboration with colleagues at the University of Sussex and Harvard University)
‘Layering gender into the ‘thinking’ of public policy: Deconstructing case-studies through an interdisciplinary social sciences framework’, paper presentation at the India Public Policy Network annual conference, National Law School of India University Bangalore, June 8 – June 11, 2026.
Co-convenor of the international workshop: The Network State: Redefining State and Education in an era of Public-Private Partnerships, July 7-8, 2025. In collaboration with colleagues at the University of Melbourne and Manipal Academy of Higher Education Bangalore. (Funded by the Melbourne Global Centre conference grant.)
‘Cooperation or Cooptation: Using the Right to Information to trace PPP regimes in the development sector in India’, paper presentation in the panel: Navigating exclusive spaces and novel methods: Responding to development’s private sector turn at the Development Studies Association annual conference at the University of Bath, June 25 – June 27, 2025.
‘Efficiently disabling equity: Corporate philanthropy, fellowships and new elite professional networks in the development sector’, paper presentation at the workshop: Inequality and Elites in South Africa and India: Challenges, Debates and Possibilities conducted by the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, February 18-19, 2025.
‘Channelling Compassion towards change: Elite volunteerism, corporate philanthropy and education reform in urban India’, paper presentation at the workshop: Fixing Policy: Private Players and Policy making in India conducted by the School of Public Policy, Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai in collaboration with the Kings College, London, August 14, 2024.
‘Channelling Compassion towards change: Elite volunteerism, corporate philanthropy and education reform in urban India’, paper presentation in the seminar series at the Max Weber Forum for South Asia Studies, Delhi, August 25, 2023.
| vsubramanian@jgu.edu.in | |
| Key Expertise | School and technical higher education systems in contemporary India, vocational education and skills-based training, education policy and development, data and governance |