INTRODUCTION
With a steadfast vision to become a distinguished center for scientific research and training in pursuit of excellence, the Institute of Disaster Management and Vulnerability Studies (IDMVS), University of Dhaka along with its diverse academic endeavors offers a rigorous one-and-a-half-year (3 semesters) Professional Master of Disaster Management (MDM henceforth) program wrapped with versatile approaches of learning. It is uniquely configured to pertinently educate various leaders from different backgrounds who will shape the future. At the beginning, the program was launched with financial and technical support from Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP) of the Government of Bangladesh; over the years, it has successfully partnered with many international academic institutions and some of the world’s major development collaborators like UNDP, DFID, Oxfam, IFRC, European Union, and other development organizations.
The professional master’s program has been designed as a multidisciplinary learning and research platform extending beyond conventional notions for a holistic grounding in calibrating innovative ideas in varied fields. The program welcomes prospective individuals from different disciplines and backgrounds who aspire to master a further specialization, acquire expertise, and craft a career in disaster and emergency management, climate change, and other development practices with specific focus on scientific and technological, economic, socio-cultural, environmental, political, gender, and social inclusion issues. The MDM program covers a wide range of academic research areas including natural and human-induced hazards and disasters; theories and approaches to disaster management; society, environment, and ecology; vulnerabilities and theories of vulnerabilities; cycles of disaster and emergency management; multiplicity of disaster management policies; institutional and regulatory frameworks; population, resources, and development; global warming, anthropogenic climate change, carbon management, limiting global mean surface temperature “well below 20C”, and adaptation; disaster response and preparedness; structural and nonstructural measures to emergency; gender rights, gendered dimensions, and other issues; poverty and food security; coping and adaptation mechanisms; risk, early warning, and mitigation; mainstreaming disaster risk reduction, community risk, environmental and social impact assessment; damage, loss, and need assessment; public health, water security, sanitation, and drinking water management; urban-rural differences to disaster responses etc. The overall objective of the program is to provide students with some unique opportunities to critically analyze the theories and conceptual approaches on the one hand and apply them in the practical world on the other.
RESEARCH AND LEARNING CONCENTRATIONS
The professional MDM Program is orchestrated to impart comprehensive scientific and technological learning on disaster, emergency, environment, development, and climate change related knowledge to the graduates coming from diverse disciplines. The specific objective as mentioned earlier is to create an expert talent pool of trained professionals with profound knowledge, skills, and innovative acumen to contribute further to the society. Encouraging relentless pursuits of creativity and innovations, inspiring breakthroughs, designing futuristic solutions, and producing original scholarships are the fundamental ethos and always remain at the central cores of the Institute. The degree, to be awarded by the University of Dhaka, is configured in the contexts of interdisciplinary spectra involving research concentrations in various areas of disasters, emergencies, and vulnerabilities; diverse impacts and implications of anthropogenic climate change; environmental science, policy, and management; ecology, ecosystems, and biodiversity; risk assessment, reduction, mitigation, and adaptation; sustainability, innovation, capacity building, leadership, and resilience; appropriate technology design, production, and transfer-diffusion dynamics; policymaking and effective planning engineering; crisis and emergency responses; science-policy-actions synergy. Along with, understanding predominant global trends and future possibilities, galvanizing solution mechanisms, incorporating state-of-the-art knowledge systems, and viable ideas are also emphasized.
UNIQUENESS OF THE MDM PROGRAM