Rajendra Pradhan, Dean of Nepa School of Social Sciences and Humanities said the idea for such an institution was to meet the long-felt need for quality higher education and research in the social sciences and humanities in Nepal.[break]
“We want to develop into a centre dedicated to excellence in learning, teaching, research, publishing, critical thinking and informed discussions on issues relevant to Nepal and the region,” Pradhan said while informing prospective students and the press about his plans and programs.
“The campus will be an open, egalitarian, inclusive and welcoming of a diversity of ideas, theories, methodologies as well as cultures and the academic environment will foster informed, reasoned debates that respect rival perspectives,” he said.
The School is launching its first program -- Graduate Diploma in Social Sciences this April.
The diploma course is a whole-day program and is available to graduates in any discipline from a recognized university. The program with two semesters of 14 weeks each will cost around Rs 30,000.
The dean said that the full-time diploma should be considered as a bridge course before joining any Master’s program. However, the Nepal School program still remains an informal degree. “We have been talking to the Kathmandu University for a formal recognition of some sort,” Pradhan said. “For now, it should be considered a good opportunity as a bridge before any Master’s program and to gain required skill sets in social sciences.”
Some of the course description includes: Sociological Theory, Introduction to Anthropological Perspectives, Modern Political Thought, Introduction to Economics, Feminism, Gender and Development and Research Methods.
The School boasts of highly qualified pool of academics coming together, including the likes of author and political commentator Deepak Thapa, scientist and academician Dipak Gyawali, writer Basanta Thapa and political scientist Hari Sharma. The faculty will include Sudhindra Sharma, Jeevan Sharma, Bandita Sijapati, Mukta Singh Lama and Saurav Dev Bhatta, to name a few.
An international advisory board will assist the management in reviewing the curricula and giving recommendations on the structure of the courses, the officials told Republica. The board consists of eminent social scientists from around the world, who have academic and research links with Nepal, like David Gellner, David Holmberg, Michael Hutt and Gerard Toffin.
The nine-month long program would include an intensive academic reading and writing and would be interdisciplinary in nature, the dean said. The classes will be a combo of lectures, discussions and presentation and the medium of instruction, assignments, and exams will be in English. The program will also have one course on Nepal and South Asia.
The diploma program is a spin-off of four-month-long Immersion Course that Social Science Baha conducted for six years until it was discontinued last year.
Hari Sharma, one of the faculty members said that the school would use texts instead of textbooks and the discussions in classes will be focused on local issues. “We have to relate those abstract political theories and help students understand it in local context with their experiences of everyday life and concerns,” Sharma, who is one of the leading political scientists in Nepal, said.
“We will focus on theory generated abroad. It will foster critical thinking and help student comprehend the idea,” said another faculty member and social scientist Sudhindra Sharma.
Pradhan said the institute would be developed to a full-scale university that will offer a two-year MA program in near future and eventually undergraduate courses and PhD program in Sociology, Anthropology and Political Sciences.
The program is open to 30 students only and the classes will begin from April 12.
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