Social Sciences Doctorate To Be Offered 2014-15

Birzeit University held a briefing session on March 13, 2014 on the new doctoral program in social sciences, which will be offered by the beginning of academic year 2014-2015.

The briefing session was attended by Vice President for Academic Affairs Henry Giacaman and Dean of Graduate Studies Talal Shahwan, as well as members of the academic staff who worked to prepare the academic part of the program and a large number of potential candidates for this program.

Giacaman said that the doctoral program in social science at Birzeit University is a pilot program in higher education in social sciences in the Arab region as a whole. He added that there is a growing trend towards software interfaces and cross-disciplines in the social sciences and humanities in various parts of the world, and this is due to the inability of traditional disciplines to provide the analytical tools necessary to understand the social and cultural complex processes and phenomena.

Shahwan detailed the admission requirements of the program, which will accept 10 applicants in the first class. The program consists of 54 credit hours, of which 30 are course credit hours. Shahwan added that the program requires fluency in English and sabbatical leave of absence, while scholarships that cover tuition fees and cost of living are available.

The doctoral program in social sciences has been accredited by the Palestinian Accreditation and Quality Assurance Commission at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in 2013.