Welcome !
The University:
The North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) at Shillong, Meghalaya (India) was set up by an Act of Parliament and notified on 19th July 1973. The objectives of the University, as laid down in the act, are "to disseminate and advance knowledge by providing instructional and research facilities in such branches of learning as it may deem fit; to pay special attention to the improvement of the social and economic conditions and welfare of the people of the hill areas of the North-eastern region, and in particular, the intellectual, academic and cultural advancement".
The Department of Economics:
The Department of Economics is in the School of Economics, Management and Information Sciences of NEHU. It was established in 1974. It offers MA/MSc in Economics at the Masters level and MPhil and PhD in Economics at the research level of higher education. The Department has 15 members on its faculty.
| The Masters Program: |
| Admission to the Masters Program: |
The Department offers MPhil (economics) and PhD (economics) programmes at the research level at an intake capacity of 20 scholars in each programme. Research in Economics of North-Eastern Region, especially that of the upland areas of India, Institutional Economics and the Economics of Environment has been a special involvement of the Department. It has contributed significantly to an understanding of the problems of the Economy of North-Eastern Region of India and evolving effective programmes and policies for their appropriate solution.
Admission to the Research Programs:
Admission to MPhil and PhD programmes is given every year; the call for applications is duly advertised in newspapers and on website of the University. The research students (pursuing MPhil or PhD) have to undergo a one-semester course work consisting of three papers, before they would be registered for the research work towards their dissertations. Departmental Seminars are a part of the academic programmes of the Department.
The Bachelors Program:
The University has a number of affiliated colleges that offer economics at the Under-Graduate (BA/BSc) level. The Board of Under-Graduate Studies (BUGS), chaired by the Head, Department of Economics, NEHU makes the syllabus as well as it takes the necessary measures to keep up the quality of eduction at the UG level. The BUGS has recently updated and restructured the Syllabus for BA/BSc (Economics) 3-Years Degree course in the light of UGC Model curricula.
Orientation and Refresher Courses:
The Department conducts from time to time Orientation/Refresher Courses for the teachers in Economics. Orientation/Refresher Courses are open to the teachers of the University and the affiliated Colleges of the University as well as to the teachers of other universities/colleges. A refresher course (on Alternative Economics) is being conducted during 12/09/2011 - 02/10/2011.
| Seminars and Worksops: |
The Thrust Area:
The thrust areas of research in the Department are : Economics of NER, Rural Development, Institutional Economics, Poverty Studies, Industrial Economics, Econometrics and Agricultural Economics. Research publications by the faculty members of the Department in these areas are a significant contribution to the literature in economics in general and the economics of the North-Eastern Region in particular. The Department has also successfully completed a number of Research Projects and several other projects are ongoing.
Keeping Abreast with the Contemporary Development:
The Department has always been eager to venture into newer areas of teaching and research. A one-year Diploma course in Techniques of Analysis and Computer Programming was started in the Department as early as 1985, when the use of personal computers in economic analysis was not much wide-spread in India. Two optional papers in Computer Applications in Economic Analysis at the MA/MSc level were introduced as early as 1992 - years before the UGC appreciated the application of computers to economic analysis and incorporated a course regarding the same in its model curricula in 1998. Recently, the Department felt that it has ignored teaching and research in heterodox or non-traditional economics, the approach that defies the mainstream economics or challanges the establishment economics, which is mainly based on the neoclassical reasoning. Hence, the Department has introduced three new courses into MA/MSc syllabus: Evolutionary Economics, Experimental Economics and Institutional Economics. Teaching of Economics of Law, Behavioral Economics and Agent-based Computational Economics is on our agenda. Other universities in India have largely ignored the teaching and research in these non-traditional branches of economics. The paper on Historical Perspective of Modern Economics aims at introducing the history of economic ideas, especially after 1950. It is different from the traditional approach to teaching the History of Economic thought that stresses on the works of the Classical and the Neoclassical economists (and the Keynesian and the Neo/New-Keynesian economists at its best).
Achievements:
The members on the faculty have published a fairly large number of books and journal articles, especially on the economics of the North Eastern Region of India. A number of publications relate to econometrics, statistics and optimization as well. The Department currently ranks 16th among the more than 100 institutions/departments of economics in India listed and ranked by IDEAS/RePEc (a global electronic archive of working papers and publications in Economics, Econometrics/Statistics and Finance, maintained/hosted by the Dept. of Economics, Univ. of Connecticut/Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, USA).
Looking Forward:
The Department has planned to publish two e-journals: (i) the Journal of Alternative Economic Analysis, to extend the boundaries of various upcoming approaches to economic analysis and (ii) the North East Economic Review, especially devoted to the economics of the North Eastern Region, India.