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Since 2005 the course also includes two optional modules. In
2007, one compulsory module on ‘Research Methodology in Forced
Migration Studies’ and one optional module on ‘Media and Forced
Migration’ have been added to the course as per the recommendations of
the Advisory Committee meeting held in New Delhi on May 11, 2007. Also,
the theme of ‘Global Warming, Climate Change and Forced Migration’
was the special focus of the already existing optional module on
‘Resource Politics, Environmental Degradation, Violence and
Displacement’. The participants were asked to select any one of the
optional modules of their choice. They
were given one assignment from the optional module that they selected.
They had to write a review essay analysing some of the reading materials
given in that module.
Participants
Twenty-four participants were selected for the course, of whom twenty
could complete the course. These participants were selected through
public notifications and were drawn from backgrounds of law, social and
humanitarian work, human rights work, and academic and research work.
Most of them came from South Asia but a few were also from other regions
such as Europe, Africa, and Australia and brought forth with them wider
experiences of refugee-hood and of rehabilitation and care.
Those who could not complete the course were unable to do so
mainly due to sudden indisposition and visa problems.
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Faculty
The faculty was drawn from people with recognised backgrounds in
refugee studies, studies in internal displacement, university teaching
and research, humanitarian work in NGOs, legal studies, UN
functionaries, particularly UNHCR functionaries; public policy analysis,
journalism, and concerned human rights activism and humanitarian work.
Attention was paid to diversity of background and region. Importance was
attached to the requirements of the syllabus; the faculty was also
involved in developing on a permanent scale a syllabus, a set of reading
materials, evaluation, and follow-up activities. The resource persons
also helped in harmonising the syllabus of this course with the
requirements of the participants, and similar syllabi in various
universities, workshops, and courses. They graded participants on their
skills such as speaking and writing skills, analysis of themes chosen,
execution of creative assignments etc.
Evaluation
The participants were evaluated by a number of resource persons.
The core faculty evaluated each of their assignments.
All the resource persons present evaluated their presentations,
including the presentation of their term papers.
They were given a grade for the distance education segment and
another for the Kolkata workshop. At
the end of the course they were given a cumulative grade. The course is
equivalent to six credit hours of graduate level work.
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