DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY & DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

Objectives

The programmes seek to expose students to various political, socio-economic, cultural and environmental issues that affect the development of societies across the world.

The programmes endeavour to equip students with theoretical, conceptual, ideological and practical skills necessary for the training of these students as historians, development practitioners and international civil servants

Vision

 To be a development oriented department that churns out graduates who fully comprehend political, socio-economic, cultural and environmental issues that affect the development of societies across the world.

Mission Statement

• Commitment to producing students who need to be aware of what has transpired in the past in order to tackle contemporary challenges from an informed standpoint.

• Commitment to cutting edge research on development, historical and international issues and to be trend setting in the training of future development practitioners, historians and internationalists.

• Commitment to the full utilisation of Information Communication Technology in teaching and research.

• Commitment to producing competent and well-informed players in the globalising and ever competitive knowledge economy.

• Commitment to generation of new knowledge through research.

What Students Say About the Programmes

The programme is highly demanding and thoroughly prepares students to be versatile people who can fit into a variety of areas as development practitioners. It provides students with a broad, interdisciplinary curriculum focusing on Development Theory and practice with a deliberate slant and bias towards the conditions and problems of the Developing World. -Tobias Guzura, Bachelor of Arts Honours in History and Development Studies 2001-2005

Modules in the MSU History and Development Studies undergraduate programme have been selected to provide students with a broad, interdisciplinary education focusing on the conditions and problems of less-developed countries comprising the so-called "Third World", the history and theory of economic development around the world, and the geographic and environmental consequences of "development". -Paul Charidza, Bachelor of Arts Honours in History and Development Studies 2002-2005

This new innovative programme is one that is fully geared towards preparing students for a career, as development practitioners be it in the public, private or non-governmental sectors. Taking a leaf from the undergraduate History and Development Studies, the programme matches theory to practice. The modular content is such that students get a through grounding on the demands of development practice and gives them the way forward on how they can become transformative practitioners in the developing world .-Tobias Guzura, Master of Arts in Development Studies 2006-2007