MASTER OF SCIENCE IN POPULATION STUDIES

MASTER OF SCIENCE IN POPULATION STUDIES

BAHIR DAR UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES PROGRAM

AUGUST, 2013

Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

1. 1.BACKGROUND

The Program of Geography and Environmental Studies is one of the oldest departments in the then Bahir Dar Teachers College. The Geography and Environmental Studies Program at BDU has undergone developmental stages that range from the status of embedded department to a full-fledged one. The training has been at different levels at different times. From 1973 to 1988 E.C, the program used to train at a diploma level. From 1989 E.C, onwards, however, the program has been training both in diploma, which is limited to extension program, and B. Ed degree in all programs. Currently, by realizing the growing need of qualified professionals in Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing, the program has been training professionals at M. Sc. level. Besides its regular program it has been running evening, summer and distance education teacher training programs. Since, 2007, it has embarked a post graduate program in GIS and has developed a M.A (Master of Arts in Geography and Environmental Studies program. The department is expanding its additional other post graduate programs (Population Studies and Environment Management).

Ethiopia is undertaking efforts to eradicate poverty and bring socio-economic development in order to change people’s livelihoods and achieve sustainable development. In order to achieve this endeavor, the Government of Ethiopia initiated the development and transformation plan which has among its pillars: Human resources development and knowledge based economy, global and regional integration, balancing socio-economic   development and population growth, reducing gender gaps and harmful traditions and reducing natural resources degradation by bringing the sustainable utilization.

Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Sub-Saharan Africa with about 82.1 million people in 2011, with growth rate of 2.6 percent per annum. The population of Ethiopia is projected to reach 106 million by the year 2020 and will double within 27 years. This rate of growth has, however, serious economic and social implications. With the rate of growth that Ethiopia now has, the abundance of young population that is economically dependent population is challenging the nation. In addition, the depleted natural resources would further be pressurized. This, on top of climate change and its effects on natural resources, would challenge the development of the country and the welfare of its population. It was this trend of population growth and its lack of harmony with the capacity of the country and its natural resources that led to launch M.A on population studies in order to provide the higher level trained personnel on this area.

The Population Studies program will foster research and training in population issues. It will support the development program by providing personnel on issues of population, and development, population and resources, population and environment and population and reproductive health. The discipline emphasizes empirical investigation of population processes, including the conceptualization and measurement of these processes and the study of their determinants and consequences. The program is expected to solve the critical problems related to development areas such as the environment, food production, education, health, maternal mortality and child health, housing, labor force and employment, the situation of women, children and adolescents. The M.A program in Population Studies will have four modules: Research methods and Techniques of population analysis; Population, Environment and Development; GIS in Population studies, GIS in Population studies and Thesis.

1. 2.RATIONALE OF THE PROGRAM

The first ever, national population policy was promulgated only in 1993. The objective was harmonizing the rate of population growth with that of country’s capacity of development in order to improve the quality of the life of citizens. Given the assumption that there is a two way interaction between demographic factors of the one hand and other development indicators on the other, which will lead to sound fertility and, mortality reduction. However, there were/are no structured strategies and define organizational structure to implement the objectives of policy.

The initiative and the decision to launch this program was mainly based on the basic need assessment result conducted at national level. The need assessment was conducted to assess the relevance of Population Studies program at post graduate level. The need assessment has shown that the demand for experts under this area at different sectors was very high and most of the vacant places for this profession are occupied by other related professions. An increasing number of administrative, planning and statistical offices at Federal and Regional levels, research organizations, Universities and the private sectors have shown interest in employing persons whose training and expertise is in the use and analysis of populationdata. Hence, the rationale for the launching of population study program at masters level is: to provide qualified human resource capable of addressing the population and development problems. It is also to provide qualified human resource capable of addressing the population and development problems which includesformulating national development policies, plans and programs by integrating countrywide population information and education program up to small family size and its relationship with human welfare and environmental security.

1. 3.PROFESSIONAL AND GRADUATE PROFILES

3.1 Professional Profile

The graduates will have the following professional profiles:

• Undertake researches that solve problems of development at the national and international levels.
• Provide consultancy services to policy makers and planners to achieve harmonized development between population and resources.
• Design and coordinate population and development projects for sustainable of use of the environment and resources.
• Produce and disseminate materials on population and development issues to create awareness among the public and act accordingly

3.2 Graduate Profile

Having successfully completed the modules in the program of population studies, students should be able to:

·         Explain social, cultural and economic development issues facing people of Ethiopia;

·         Teach a broad range of university level courses that expose students to population and development perspectives, leading to a better understanding of the complex relationship between population, environment and development;

·         Actively participate in the planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluation as well as management of population and related programs;

·         Coordinate and conduct multidisciplinary research on issues dealing with population and development activities;

·         Estimate demographic parameters in the absence of proper vital registration system

·         Assess the consequences of population growth including systematic study of problems and issues in reproductive health, food security, urbanization, climate change, etc;

• Advocate on behalf of the multi-dimensional aspect of population and its impact/ contribution for development with special emphasis on children, women, elders, minorities, refugees, the poor, the disabled, etc.
• participate in reducing high risk of fertility, morbidity, mortality as well as migration of damaged groups and
• Play practical role in addressing cross-cutting issueslike Gender, HIV/AIDS, environment, population, and development to facilitate national development.

1. 4.OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAM

               3.1 General Objectives

The general objective of the graduate program in population studies is to produce citizens capable of contributing on different aspects of population and development issues.

     4.2 The specific objectives of the program are:

The main   objectives of the program will be to:

• formulate and carrying out research in the areas of population and development interrelationships,
  • Apply population theories in the process of analysis of social, cultural and economic development issues facing people,
  • address development activities which work on reducing fertility rate; reducing maternal, infant and child mortality and morbidity,
    • participate national development policies, plans and programs by integrating population, resources, environment and development,
    • undertake collection, processing, evaluation and analysis of population data,
    • increasing effective countrywide population information and education program to small family size and its relationship with human welfare and environmental security,
    • Participate in improving reproductive health and family planning programs,
    • Promote partnerships by performing a bridging role between the different national and international institutes that deal with population issues and sustainable development and poverty reduction processes.
    • Provide focused short and long term training as needed by different national and international organizations that deals with population issues, sustainable development and poverty production processes.
    • Contribute to the development plans and economic and social transformations of the different regions in Ethiopia and Amhara region in particular.
    • Awareness generation and consensus building through seminars, conferences, lectures, publications and other forms of information dissemination mechanisms.

·         Fulfill the need for careers in a variety of areas, including policy and planning, project

       management in private and public sectors.

1. 5.ADMISSION REQUIREMENT AND DURATION OF STUDY

To be eligible for admission to M.Sc Population Studies candidates shall: Comply with the general regulations for admission to the Graduate Program of Bahir Dar University. Candidates who have completed undergraduate degrees from recognized university/college in Sociology, Economics, Geography and Environmental Studies, Mathematics, Psychology, Anthropology, Social Work, Statistics, Natural resources, Agro-economics, Disaster and risk management, biology, Land Administration are considered for admission into the program upon passing an entrance examination. The curriculum extends for tow academic years on course work and thesis writing. Extending the duration beyond two years requires the permission of the Faculty Council and Graduate School.

1. 6.GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS

• Students will be eligible for graduation upon successful completion of all the courses (26 credit hours). The minimum grade point average (GPA) required for graduation is 3.0 with no "F" grade.
• Successful thesis defense (6 credits), which must be preceded by a pre-submission seminar are required for graduation.

8.QUALITYASSURANCE

Thisprogramis the one which will contribute more on the issues of population and development issues. One of the quality assurance aspects of the program will be assigning wellqualified university instructors to handle the courses in Post Graduate Program. Therefore, all the courseinstructors,advisorsandthesisexaminers(bothinternal andexternal)mustbeat leastPhDholdersorassistantprofessors.Incaseofseriousscarcityofqualified instructors,onlyPhD candidates who effectively completed their course works and successfully defended theirdissertationproposalareconsideredtohandlethePostGraduatecoursesuponapprovalbytheDGC.TechnicalassistantstohandlethePostGraduateProgramshouldbeatleastBADegreeholdersintheareawith theminimumofthreeyearsexperienceinrelatedlaboratorywork. Moreover,thestudentsshouldbeassistedbyadequatecomputer-basedlaboratoryworksandat leastlocal-basedfield experiences.

1. 9.DEGREE NOMENCLATURE

After completion of the program, Students will be awarded with a degree of:

1. vin English as: Master of Science (M.Sc) in Population Studies and,
2. vin Amharic as: “ሳይንስ ማስትሬት ”በሥነ ሕዝብ ጥናት”

Staff Profile

*On study leave

1. 10.ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION

The grading system is as per the University Legislation and the assessment and evaluation techniques can be: Students will be assessed through series of presentations, project/seminar paper writing, oral examination, lab and field reports and final written exam as the specific demand of the given course. The thesis will be evaluated by the board of examiners composed of external and internal examiners and the session of examination will be chaired by the main supervisor. The grading system for course work will be norm referenced and will be written in the transcripts using letter grading approach as per the university legislation. Abovealltherequirementswillbeboundbytheuniversity legislation. The thesis will be graded as Excellent, very good, good, and satisfactory and fail. The grade will be accepted if and only if the comments forwarded by examiners are included in the final version of the thesis. This has to be verified in writings by the supervisor. The final paper has to be submitted to the school of graduate studies following the standard format of the graduate school in four copies.

11. DEMAND FOR THE PROGRAM AND MATERIALS

In order to implement this program, based on the modularization system it is important to acquire the following needs:

• The number of staffs in the department is less, so it needs to increase the number.
• The department needs to have at least one laboratory for practical work for the courses;

population analysis and Statistics and computing for population studies, Project Planning, monitoring and Evaluation and GIS and remote sensing for population studies, Research methods on population studies and other courses. For a moment it is possible to use GIS lab.

• Lab equipments particularly computers and GIS and some other softwares are necessary Internet accesses are necessary to both staffs and students. For a moment it is possible to use GIS lab.
  • The courses have no reference books in the library, the student centered approach increase the demand of books. For a moment it is possible to print the soft copy books.
  • The above-mentioned resources are mandatory to attain the objective of the program.
  • However, for the initiation of the program, it is possible to use the available once.

11.ASSIGNING OF COURSE CODES

The course codes will have four alphabets and four digit numbers. The four alphabets code indicates the name of the program with all the alphabet capital letter, i.e POPS indicate abbreviations of program i.e., “POP” for population and “S” for Studies, respectively. The four digit number indicates the year, module code and the order of course within the module offering respectively.

1. 9.COURSE BREAKDOWN

**continue from the first semester