The Diploma is a one-year course. The Indian Law Society (ILS) will award the Diploma, a registered public charitable trust which runs ILS law College, Pune. After confirmation of admission, the students are expected to go through the reading/study material, which will be available on the web-board, using password-controlled access to the material. Students will also be provided with the overall core texts for the overall diploma, including the WHO Resource Book on Mental Health, Human Rights and Legislation as well as other core documents.
The course will commence on 15th September 2012 when the students start work on Modules 1 & 2 (see later) of the course. Students are expected to read the course work notes for Modules 1 & 2 and complete the online quiz questionnaires by 15th October 2012. The first residential session starts on 27th October 2012 During this residential session students shall attend on campus lectures and workshops for 2 weeks. The residential session ends of 10th November 2012. The second residential session lasts for one week and is at then end of the course (October 2013), to complete projects, and examinations and award of the Diploma. Between these two residential sessions, students return to their home where they are required to complete review online lectures at an average rate of one module per month, and complete study exercises, essays or other homework assignments related for each of the modules that will be posted on the web. In addition, students complete a Project on a topic related to mental health, law and human rights.
Each student will be assigned to a supervisor who will help in selection of the project area and provide an on-going supervision. In addition, one or two supervisors will also be allocated a specific module to supervise and be responsible for marking the homework assignments for that module as well as providing guidance and answering the questions of students on issues arising from it.