UPHESC Assistant Professor Sociology Syllabus 2026

UPHESC Assistant Professor Sociology Syllabus

The written exam has two parts: General Knowledge (30 questions, the same for all subjects) and Sociology (90 questions). Both syllabi below are the official ones of the Uttar Pradesh Education Service Selection Commission, Prayagraj.

Part 1: General Knowledge (30 questions, 90 marks)

Compulsory for all disciplines. Download PDF (0.3 MB)

Unit 1: Current Affairs

Major events and current affairs: national and international
Personalities in news
Sports news
Current research in the field of science

Unit 2: Teaching and Research Aptitude

Teaching: nature, objectives, need, methods, evaluation and factors affecting teaching
Research: meaning and methods
Data: source, collection and analysis
Role of UGC in qualitative development in higher education

Unit 3: Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

ICT: meaning, advantages and disadvantages
Basics of internet and e-mailing
General abbreviations and terminology

Unit 4: People and Environment

People and environment interaction
Environmental degradation: causes and solutions
National and international efforts for a better environment
Environmental control

Unit 5: Indian History and Geography

Salient features of Indian culture
Indian National Movement (1857–1950)
Origin of the universe and the solar system
Indian geography (general)

Unit 6: Indian Constitution and Economy

Preamble, Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles
Indian political system: legislature, executive and judiciary
Election Commission and Public Service Commission
Population, poverty, unemployment; planning and development; income tax
Agriculture, industry, trade; money, currency, banking and capital market

Part 2: Sociology (subject code 41) – 90 questions, 270 marks

The Sociology paper is at post-graduate (Master's) level. The complete official syllabus is below. Download Sociology syllabus PDF (1.3 MB)

Unit 1: Basic Sociological Concepts and Institutions

Sociology- Definition, Nature and Scope
Sociological Concepts, Sociological Perspective
Basic Concepts-Community, Institution, Association, Culture, Custom, Norms and Values
Social Structure: Meaning of Social Structure; Status and role
Social Group: Primary & Secondary, Formal - Informal, Ingroup – Outgroup, Reference group
Social Institutions : Marriage, Family, Kinship, Economy Polity, Religion, Education
Social Stratification : Social differentiation, Hierarchy and Inequality, Exclusion
Forms of stratification : Caste, Class, Gender and Ethnicity
Theories of social stratification
Social mobility : Meaning and types
Socialization-Meaning, agencies and theories
Social change and its types
Evolution, Diffusion, Progress, Revolution, Transformation
Theories of Social change
Social reform and Social movement

Unit 2: Sociological Theories and Perspectives

Structural functional : Radcliffe Brown; Levi – Strauss; S.F. Nadel.; Malinowski, Durkheim, Parsons, Merton; J. Alexander
Interactionist : Social action : Max Weber, Pareto
Symbolic Interactionism : G. H. Mead, Blumer
Conflict - Karl Marx, Dahrendorf, Coser, Collins, Althusser.
Phenomenology and Ethnomethodology : Alfred Shultz, Peter Berger and Luckmann; Garfinkel and Goffman
Structuration, Post – Modernism; Post Structuralism & Post-Colonialism; Bourdieu, Haberamas, Giddens, Derrida, Foucault

Unit 3: Research Methodology, Methods and techniques

Meaning and Nature of Social Research
The scientific method
Objectivity and subjectivity, Theory, fact and value
Critique of positivism
Ethical values in research
Qualitative and Quantitative Methods
Historical method, Comparative method, Hermenautic method, Survey, Research Design, Hypothesis
Sampling and its types
Techniques of data collection : Observation, Questionnaire, Schedule, Interview
Qualitative Methods : Observation; Case study; Content analysis
Statistics in Social Research - Mean, Median and Mode

Unit 4: Sociology of Development

Theories of Development : Human development, Social development
Sustainable development : Ecological and Social
Modernization
Science, Technology and Society
Globalization
Issues related to Development
Regional disparity
Displacement
Ecological degradation and environmental pollution
ICT, Network Society and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Unit 5: Urban and Industrial Society

Urban- Industrial Society in the Classical Sociological Tradition
Urbanization & urban problems
Division of labour
Bureaucracy
Alienation
Industrialization and Social Change in India
Impact of industrialization on society
Class and class conflict in industrial society
Limitations of industrialization and urbanization

Unit 6: Tribal and Rural Society

Meaning of Tribe, Tribe and Development, Tribal Studies
Approaches to the study of Rural Society
Rural – Urban differences
Peasant and village studies
Agrarian Institutions
Caste and Jajmani system
Agrarian class structure
Land ownership and its types
Panchayati Raj System
Agrarian unrest, Peasant movements and farmer's movement

Unit 7: Crime, Population and Gender Issues

Meaning and Theories of Crime and Punishment
Crime and delinquency
Deviance and its forms
White collar crime, Corruption, Nepotism, Terrorism, Cyber crime, and digital arrest
Probation, Parole and Justice
Concepts of Fertility, Mortality, Morbidity and Migration
Theories of Population Growth
Gender as a Social Construct, Patriarchy and Matriarchy, Theories of Gender; Gender and Development; Women and Development

Unit 8: Environment and Society

Social Ecology, Indigenous knowledge, gender and environment, development induced displacement & rehabilitation; ecological degradation and environmental pollution
Environmental movements

Unit 9: Indian Sociological Perspectives

Conceptualizing Indian Society
Cultural diversity : Regional, linguistic, religious and tribal
Indological / Textual Perspective : G. S. Ghurye, N.K. Bose.
Structural – Functional Perspective : M.N. Srinivas, S. C. Dube
Marxian Perspective : D. P. Mukherjee, A. R. Desai
Subaltern : B.R. Ambedkar; D. Hardiman
Sociology in India and Sociology for India and Indigenization of Sociology

Unit 10: Contemporary debates in Sociology

Debates on Tradition and Modernity in India
Issues of Nation Building : Fundamentalism, Secularism/Secularization
Pluralism and Nation building; Democracy, Citizenship and Civil Society
Ethnicity and Identity
Challenges of LPG
Contemporary movements in India

How to prepare

Match the official Sociology syllabus unit by unit with your Master's notes and mark weak units first.
Solve previous UPHESC/UPESSC Assistant Professor Sociology papers (Advt 51 re-exam of April 2026 is the most recent).
Do not leave GK for the end: Teaching and Research Aptitude and ICT are scoring units of the GK paper.
Practise MCQs under time limits because of negative marking (-1 per wrong answer).

Syllabus PDFs of all 43 subjects are on UPHESC Assistant Professor.