LUANAR Studies Extension Department – Check Below:
ABOUT EXTENSION DEPARTMENT
Focal Areas for Research, Outreach and Teaching
The faculty members and students of Extension Department at Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources have over the years been engaged in research and outreach activities on the tenets of agricultural extension and rural development. Particularly the department offers courses to undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate studies In agricultural extension and rural development, conducts research and outreach activities on agricultural extension, land tenure, agricultural innovation systems, agrarian transformation, development policy analysis, cooperatives and associations, food security, poverty and livelihoods, and agricultural markets and marketing plus gender and development and ICTs in development. Undergraduate
We offer a four-year Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Extension with core competences in agriculture and rural development. The BSc programme is unique and robust as it exposes students to practical issues in extension studies and work through implementation of an action research project by students, and a combination of practical courses and field work with Important agricultural actors in Malawi. BSc programme admits students on generic and mature basis. The generic students come through from high school and spend a year doing foundation courses before diving into the core courses of the programme from second to fourth year. Mature students come in second year.
The deliberate exposure is ensured by the experiential learning approach used in training students commonly known as Supervised Extension Projects also known as SEPs. Through the SEPs our students have a well-planned and structured interaction with the community by conducting a needs assessment, participatory design and implementation of extension projects to contribute to immediate solution of extension clientele problems whilst generating empirical information for publications. This process runs through from second to fourth year of their study.
Feedback from stakeholders on the performance of the alumnus of the unique BSc programme is encouraging. The alumni are reported to have hands on experience, comprehensive social and working skills. Our graduates have ably worked for government, non-governmental organizations and international organizations as middle level managers. Their roles have stretched from project officers to subject matter specialists in various areas. The graduates have taken up MSc/MA trainings with success. Short courses training programmes
The department also conducts short courses in the following areas:
Participatory monitoring, evaluation and learning in Rural Development Projects and Programmes
Gender Mainstreaming in Rural Development and Agriculture
Farmer Organizations
Actor linkages in the Agricultural Value Chains
Social Impact Assessment
Postgraduate programmes
The department runs Masters of Rural Development and Extension and Doctor of Philosophy in Rural Development and Extension. The MSc and PhD programmes train system thinkers with capabilities of designing, implementing and analyzing policies, programmes and projects in rural and international development fields.
Over the two decades that the department has run and implemented the MSc programme and about a decade of implementing the PhD programme, we have our alumni working as middle to senior level national and international civil servants, working in civil society organizations, research institutes and academia in the Sub-Saharan Africa. The MSc graduates have also ably studied and completed their PhD programmes in schools of international repute in Europe and United States of America.
The MSc programme is for two years. In the first-year students are oriented to advanced theories informing the disciplines of extension, rural development and agrarian transformation. The students are also equipped with apropos research methodologies in their first year. Upon completing the first year, the MSc candidates are expected to conceptualize and present a research proposal to the faculty members in the department. Second year of their studies is dedicated to data collection, analysis and writing of their thesis. The thesis is examined by the supervisors, internal and external assessors before it can be subjected to a viva.
The PhD programme is by research and it takes a minimum of three years. The candidates work closely with their supervisors to conceptualize the research. They present proposals to the faculty for approval. The proceeding years are dedicated to data collection, analysis and writing of the thesis with guidance from the supervisors. The thesis is assessed by internal and external examiners before being defended in open and closed sessions.
