Department of Rural Studies

The importance of Rural Studies, as a discipline in higher education has grown over the last several decades. The role of Rural Institutions in nation building is well acknowledged. Rural entrepreneurship, the role and activities of NGOs and Self-employment have vital implications on the national economy and require a large number of trained personnel. The spread of rural industries rural market and village based co-operatives call for trained professionals in Rural Studies. The revival of Panchayati Raj, the changing role of co-operatives, Self Help Groups based microfinance revolution and post liberalization developments under sore importance of rural studies,
Some of the important characteristics of the department are as follows. The department has an interdisciplinary study programme, and it lays emphasis on field visits and experience based academic programmes..We invite the experts, executives of the corporate sector and leading personnel in Government so that students get the benefit of their experiences and practical knowledge. For research activities, we collaborate with National and State level Organizations.

The department had the honour of having a GANDHIAN STUDIES CENTER under the special assistance of the University Grants Commission. Under the auspices of the Center, the department has organized seminars; talks and symposia on Gandhiji. The department boasts a good resource material on Gandhian and Rural Studies .
The department has enrolment capacity of 40 students in Master of Rural Studies (M.R.S). Any graduate Any graduate second class is eligible for the course .It also enrolls students for two years Part-time course of M. Phil. in Rural Studies. It has a facility for Ph.D in Rural Studies in specific areas concerning Rural studies, up till now, it has produced more than 1000 M.R.S and couple of M. Phil.'s and 8 Ph.D's . Recently five B.R.S colleges have been affiliated with Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, as a result, we have now formal linkage with graduate programmes in Rural Studies i.e. Bachelor of Rural Studies (B.R.S.).