MESSAGE FROM THE HEAD

Bishnu Bahadur Khatri

Associate Professor.
Head of the Department.

It is my great opportunity to lead this Department as a Head. My attempt is to enhance academic programs run by CDRD from the point of view of development studies as RD is a sub-field of development studies and one of the multidisciplinary subjects within the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. We welcome students from various disciplines, for example, Anthropology, Demography, Economics, Engineering, Environmental Science, Geography, History, Political science, Public Health, Rural Development and Sociology to pursue MA in RD which requires a blending of knowledge and perspectives from these multidisciplinary areas. Let me allow saying something about Nepal why CDRD programs are urgent as it is an inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary enquiry into change and social and economic transformation in rural development

Nepal is a small landlocked Himalayan country situated between two major Asiatic civilizations: India to the south and Tibet, an autonomous part of China, to the north. For political and administrative reasons, Nepal is structured along hierarchical lines. There are three different levels (listed from the lowest to highest): Local Units (753), Districts (77), and Provinces (7). Around 61 percent of total local units is rural whereas about 63 percent of total population are residing in urban territories.

ABOUT US

Established in 2001 with the dawn of the 21st century, Central Department of Rural Development (CDRD), one of Central Departments under the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Tribhuvan University, has been offering Master of Arts (MA) program in Rural Development for about one and a half decade. It has also been facilitating a PhD program in Rural Development (the program that the Dean Office of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences started few years after CDRD came into existence) for about a decade by assessing and influencing a doctoral research conducted by students enrolled in that program through critical comments and suggestions.

Despite rapid urbanization, Nepal is still predominantly rural. Rural Municipalities (460) account for about 61 percent of total local levels (753) while urban local levels (293)-Metropolitan City (6), Sub-Metropolitan City (11) and Municipalities (276)- make up about 39 percent. Its overall development essentially involves rural development. Setting in motion the process of development in Nepali context is, for the most part, setting in motion the process of rural development. Ensuring that setting in motion the process of rural development contributes to overall development of the country requires that it be as scientific as possible. Likewise, for the process of rural development to be as scientific as possible, it must be informed by the theoretical insights derived from different academic disciplines. It is this assumption that forms the rationale behind the multidisciplinary character of MA program in Rural Development.

HIGHLIGHT

OBJECTIVE

The primary object of the Central Department of Rural Development (CDRD) is to acquaint the students with a thorough multidisciplinary theoretical knowledge as well as an in-depth knowledge of multi-dimensional aspects of a predominantly rural country like Nepal and rural development process typical of Nepal.

OUTCOMES

Upon the completion of the MA program in Rural Development, students will be able to contribute to rural development process by working in coordination with local development stakeholders and development policy makers. After they complete their Master’s Degree, they will end up being one of the following

STRATEGIES

The Central Department of Rural Development (CDRD focuses on the following activities with a view to enhancing and strengthen sound academic environment:

Work in coordination with GOs, NGOs and INGOs in different development sectors.