DUSHANBE, May 23, Asia-Plus — The University of Central Asia (UCA) and the Center for Development and Environment at the University of Berne (CDE Berne) announce a partnership to develop a cadre of Central Asian scholars in the fields of Environmental Management and Rural, Regional Development.
Ms. Dilrabo Jonbekova, Executive Assistant to Director University of Central Asia, said that UCA’s Central Asian Faculty Development Programme (CAFDP) is designed to ensure that scholars from Central Asia with top international academic credentials are strongly represented in the University’s faculty.
This program provides scholarships for Central Asian students to conduct Doctoral studies at CDE Berne. Graduates sponsored under this program will be considered for academic appointments in UCA’s Graduate School of Development and/or undergraduate School of Arts and Sciences.
The University of Berne is one of the oldest universities in Switzerland, renown for its research and teaching. The Centre for Development and Environment is uniquely dedicated to issues of sustainable development around the world and mountain areas in particular. CDE is known for its creative use of disciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches, linking analysis and synthesis, and combining high-end and low-end methods, such as GIS-based earth observation and participatory field-based approaches. The PhD program seeks to strengthen the capability and effectiveness of research and equips candidates with the necessary theoretical frameworks, research methods, and tools to conduct scientific inquiry addressing contemporary development issues.
The University of Central Asia is a secular, private, not-for-profit, and self-governing educational institution established in 2000 through an International Treaty by His Highness the Aga Khan and the Presidents of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Tajikistan, ratified by the respective parliaments, and registered with the United Nations. At UCA’s three campuses, environmental management and rural/regional development will be part of the core curriculum of the Master’s of Science in Economic Development offered by the Graduate School of Development, a focus of research at the School’s Institutes of Natural Resource Management and Rural – Regional Development, and cross-cutting components of several undergraduate specializations.
