Rationale for the program

The initiations of this program have been made by the department of social anthropology as part of its plan to expand its horizon in training and producing a high calibre academicians and researchers in the graduate program. The program rational has been articulated as follows.

1. A need assessment study conducted in the year 2018 has indicated that the demand for sociology graduates among various stakeholders, sectors offices, NGOs and academic institutions is very high. Therefore, it is highly recommended and appropriate for the faculty of Social Sciences and Bahir Dar University to launch a graduate study in the field of sociology. Most (95%) of the respondents have said that opening this graduate program is advantageous, while the majority responded there will be enough student applying for the program and 78% indicated that they have at least a high-level demand for the sociology graduates in their organization. While 92% referred that the program is very important. In addition to this, the experts informed to the curriculum development committee that the opening of the program is nice but the challenge will be how to produce efficient professional and on how to overcome the challenges both financial and professional. They pointed out that creating partnership with projects, staff development plan, creating partnership will be the best option to overcome the challenges.

2. The experience of different countries that have deemed to be successful in development has demonstrated that, in addition to the technocrats of development in the engineering sciences, they demonstrated a success in the social, economic and political sciences so as to integrate their development to the social and cultural context of their society. As a result, opening the sociology programme will help to bring those experiences to the Ethiopian context.

3. Most importantly, the opening of the sociology program is part of the effort to understand the ever-increasing complexity of the social matrix of our country, peoples, regions and cities employing the theoretical and methodological tools in sociology and social research.

4. The current pervasive and high prevalence of social problems occurring in the country such as the high prevalence of migration, conflict and violence, large scale forced displacement, health problem, food insecurity, mass poverty, unemployment, criminal activities and gender-based violence demands trained sociologists and social researchers to systematically design policies and programs so as to contextualize to the socio-cultural situation of our country.

5. Modernization, technology and globalization have brought massive changes in the whole pattern of social life especially in developing countries. It tends to affect every aspect of human life, social institutions, cultures, economies, health, production systems, and livelihoods to mention few. This defiantly will obstruct a number of social, economic, cultural and political situations in our case. The complications have to be critically examined, studied and contextualized to our socio-cultural situation for which sociological study is recommended.

6. The contemporary social problems are essentially urban born problems. To mention some, urban poverty, sanitation problem, family breakdowns, child abuse, streetism, drug, crime, commercial sex and delinquency are among the major urban born problems. These problems need comprehensive understanding of the overall process and situations. Solutions provided to social problems and challenges need to pursue a context sensitive approach using sociology.

7. In addition, there is an obvious shortage of graduates who have undergone a higher level of training in sociology. This has been proved with the need assessment study.  Needless to say, trained sociologists are needed who can conduct scientific research with the objective of understanding the various aspects of their own society and contribute their share for the country's overall development and the advancement of knowledge in their discipline.

8. Besides, trained sociologists are required to make adequate analyses of current socioeconomic and socio-cultural circumstances to formulate new, innovative and problem cantered policy direction to take our country into a greater leap forward.

Therefore, the commencement of the program will be part of the endeavour to overcome this problem. Thus, the main purpose of the graduate program in sociology is to train gratuates who can articulate the development arena in the country and synthesize problems so as to provide solutions. To this effect, the Department of Social Anthropology has proposed the commencement of the training program for sociologists at masters’ level in the spring semester of 2019.

Admission Requirements

Admission will be given for applicants who hold a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology, Sociology & Social Anthropology, Social Anthropology, Anthropology, Social Administration, Social Work, Psychology, Development Studies, Political Science, History, Cultural Studies, Gender Studies and Social and Public Policy. The applicant’s undergraduate or graduate cumulative grade point average (CGPA) will also be considered as a condition for approval of candidacy in accordance with the senate legislation. In addition, applicants are required to meet the other graduate admission requirements approved by the University.

In addition to satisfying the school of graduate studies’ admission requirements, all applicants will be screened by the department using any (or combination) of the following criteria: - (a) undergraduate/graduate degree field of study; (b) cumulative GPA; (c) entrance examination, and (d) interview to be conducted by the department entrance exam committee as deemed necessary.

Grading

The grading system for this program is as per the senate legislation of Bahir Dar University.  

Graduation

The graduate program in Sociology is required to complete 35 credit hours or 127 ECTS (CP). Other graduation requirements will be made as per the senate legislation. 

Nomenclature

The name of the degree that the graduates of this program will earn shall be called ‘Master of Art Degree in Sociology’. And the Amharic nomenclature of this shall read as ‘የአርት ማስተርስ ዲግሪበሶሲዮሎጂ’

Medium of instruction

The medium of instruction for this program is English languag

Duration of the study

The normal duration of the program is two years (four semesters). Students will register every semester. Regular students will complete their course work in the first year first two semesters. They will register for their thesis work in the second year first semester. The thesis research work will require two semesters in the second year of study for proposal development and field work.

Total load

The total load for this program is 35 credit hours (127 CP/ECTS).

List of courses and modules

  Course breakdown and mode of delivery