News & Analysis

Symbiosis School of International Studies Launches MA in African Studies — News18

Sym­bio­sis School of Inter­na­tion­al Stud­ies (SSIS) has launched a mas­ters of arts in African stud­ies (geo-eco­nom­ics and for­eign pol­i­cy) that offers a holis­tic under­stand­ing of the African con­ti­nent and its rela­tion with major coun­tries in the world. The two year long mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary pro­gramme focus­es on the polit­i­cal, eco­nom­ic and socio-cul­tur­al envi­ron­ment of the con­ti­nent and its impact on glob­al affairs.Candidate should be a grad­u­ate from any statu­to­ry uni­ver­si­ty with a min­i­mum of 50 per cent marks (45 per cent for SC and ST) at the grad­u­a­tion lev­el. Can­di­dates appear­ing for the final year exam­i­na­tion can also apply, but their admis­sion will be sub­ject to obtain­ing a min­i­mum of 50 per cent marks (45 per cent for SC and ST) in the qual­i­fy­ing examination.
A can­di­date who has com­plet­ed qual­i­fy­ing qual­i­fi­ca­tion from any for­eign board/ uni­ver­si­ty must obtain an equiv­a­lence cer­tifi­cate from the Asso­ci­a­tion of Indi­an Uni­ver­si­ties (AIU) Sym­bio­sis School of Inter­na­tion­al Stud­ies (SSIS), a con­stituent of the Sym­bio­sis Inter­na­tion­al (Deemed Uni­ver­si­ty) was estab­lished in 2012 with the aim to bring a dis­course on inter­na­tion­al rela­tions through a well-designed aca­d­e­m­ic pro­gramme, con­fer­ences, sym­posia and exchanges with rel­e­vant stakeholders.
The MA African stud­ies cen­ters around the key areas of African econ­o­my, for­eign pol­i­cy, his­to­ry, cul­ture and iden­ti­ty. It also delves into the polit­i­cal process­es and insti­tu­tions, for a com­pre­hen­sive under­stand­ing of the upswing devel­op­ment tra­jec­to­ry of the region.
Along with empow­er­ing stu­dents to learn and under­stand the African con­ti­nent, the pro­gramme aims to strength­en ana­lyt­i­cal, crit­i­cal think­ing and com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills, includ­ing devel­op­ing a holis­tic under­stand­ing of the Unit­ed Nations’ Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals. The pro­gramme will also help the stu­dent to work in a mul­ti­cul­tur­al environment.
Fur­ther, the third and fourth semes­ters offer elec­tives to help stu­dents deep-dive into the sub­ject around North, West and Cen­tral Africa and East­ern, South­ern Africa and Island nations. It also offers Ara­bic and French lan­guage learn­ing as part of its elec­tive courses.
The cur­ricu­lum includes a manda­to­ry intern­ship in the third semes­ter to help stu­dents imple­ment their the­o­ret­i­cal learn­ing with the real-world sce­nario. Post the com­ple­tion of pro­gramme, stu­dents can pur­sue a host of career paths across the cor­po­rates, the NGOs, the civ­il ser­vice, think tanks, the media hous­es and inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions or fur­ther, pur­sue doc­tor­al stud­ies in the domain.
Aspi­rants can apply for MA African Stud­ies (Geo-eco­nom­ics and For­eign Pol­i­cy) by vis­it­ing the offi­cial web­site of SSIS and reg­is­ter­ing for the pro­gramme. After suc­cess­ful online reg­is­tra­tion and pay­ment of fee, sub­ject to ful­fill­ment of admis­sion cri­te­ria, short­list­ed can­di­dates would be noti­fied for Per­son­al Inter­view (PI) via email.
The PI will be con­duct­ed vir­tu­al­ly and aspi­rants will have to book their pre­ferred slot for the same. Aspi­rants need to ensure unin­ter­rupt­ed con­nec­tiv­i­ty and a well-func­tion­ing mic to under­go the PI. The max­i­mum score for PI will be 100 marks and can cov­er gen­er­al aware­ness, clar­i­ty of thought and artic­u­la­tion, log­i­cal rea­son­ing, learn­ing ori­en­ta­tion, moti­va­tion, extracur­ric­u­lar activ­i­ties, spe­cif­ic field of inter­est, com­mu­ni­ca­tion and soft skills, and over­all personality.
Shiv­ali Lawale, Direc­tor, Sym­bio­sis School of Inter­na­tion­al Stud­ies said, “It brings us immense plea­sure to announce the launch of M.A in African Stud­ies focus­ing on Geo-eco­nom­ics and For­eign Pol­i­cy. With the launch of this pro­gramme, we are steadi­ly diver­si­fy­ing our plat­form for teach­ing and research in inter­na­tion­al rela­tions, with an empha­sis on India and its role in glob­al affairs. Through this pro­gramme, we hope to empow­er future lead­ers and cor­po­rates, who will strength­en the col­lab­o­ra­tions between India and Africa. We look for­ward to wel­com­ing our first batch of students.”
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