Inside the Harvard programme Telangana CM will attend: Public leadership, duration and fees

The curriculum is structured to simulate real-world leadership pressures. Participants are asked to bring a specific leadership challenge from their own work and engage in candid conversations about what limits progress, both individually and institutionally.

Harvard University Kennedy School Public Policy

Harvard Kennedy School is a graduate institution with programmes on public policy, leadership, with a focus on on economics, quantitative analysis, and ethical decision-making (Image via hks.harvard.edu)

By: Education Desk

4 min readNew DelhiJan 20, 2026 09:39 AM IST First published on: Jan 19, 2026 at 12:58 PM IST

Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy is set to participate in Leadership for the 21st Century, a week-long executive education programme at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), scheduled to be held on campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, between January 25 and January 30, 2026. According to the course details available on the official website of the HKS, the programme will bring together senior leaders and professionals from more than 20 countries across five continents.

According to the Harvard Kennedy School, ‘Leadership for the 21st Century’ is an on-campus executive programme designed to examine leadership as a practice rather than a position of authority. The curriculum, as per HKS, focuses on how leaders mobilise people to confront complex challenges, particularly in environments where formal authority alone is insufficient to drive meaningful change. Rather than focusing discussions on current events, the programme uses historical and contemporary case studies to explore leadership dilemmas that transcend sectors, geographies, and time periods.

During the programme, participants are required to attend daily classes, complete written assignments, submit homework, and work on group projects alongside fellow participants. The learning structure is deliberately immersive. Every morning begins with small consultation groups where participants collectively diagnose adaptive challenges drawn from their own professional contexts.

These sessions are designed to test assumptions, surface underlying tensions, and develop new interpretations of organisational and community-level problems.

Plenary sessions later are meant to build on these discussions using experiential teaching methods such as the “group as case,” a pedagogical approach in which classroom dynamics themselves become material for learning. According to Harvard, these methods are intended to reveal the complexities, risks, and possibilities inherent in exercising leadership, especially in politically charged or high-stakes settings.

Harvard notes that a key objective of the programme is to help participants move beyond technical fixes and instead undertake adaptive work, defined as closing the gap between stated aspirations and present realities. This involves examining personal assumptions, loyalties, and resistance to change, as well as learning how to orchestrate learning and adaptation within organisations and communities.

The curriculum is structured to simulate real-world leadership pressures. Participants are asked to bring a specific leadership challenge from their own work and engage in candid conversations about what limits progress, both individually and institutionally. According to the programme description, the process demands curiosity, openness, and courage, as participants are expected not only to analyse their own challenges but also to support peers in doing the same.

Read | Enrollment of Indian students see a decline at Harvard University

The programme fee is listed at $12,900, which, according to Harvard, includes tuition, on-campus housing, curricular materials, and most meals. Applications for the January 2026 session closed on December 1, 2025, though the programme page notes that prospective participants can contact the programme director for further queries.

The recommended applicant profile, as per the course details, includes senior public officials at national, state, and local levels, corporate executives such as vice presidents and C-suite leaders, as well as nonprofit and NGO heads. Harvard describes the ideal participant as an experienced professional seeking to strengthen their ability to lead in uncertain, interdependent, and politically complex environments.

Telangana CM Revanth Reddy will be based on the Kennedy School campus for the duration of the programme and will participate fully in all academic components alongside the international cohort. On completion, he is expected to receive the programme’s certification, which, according to the govt of Telangana, will be a first for a sitting Indian Chief Minister. Beyond that reference, however, the programme itself is structured to treat all participants as peers within a shared learning framework, with emphasis placed on collective problem-solving rather than individual designation.