Overview
The Social Development and Policy (SDP) Program at the Habib University is the first program of its kind in Pakistan. The Program intends to nurture an inter-disciplinary and comprehensive understanding of the complex problems of development and social change. The SDP Program equips its students with a thorough theoretical understanding together with hands-on and practical training. In addition to this, recognizing the complexity of social, economic and developmental issues, the Program seeks to offer courses that address such issues from a variety of perspectives. The Program both integrates and builds upon traditional social sciences disciplines like anthropology, economics, political science and sociology.
The Habib University SDP program represents truly an innovative and dynamic approach to some of the most important issues faced by our society both locally within the communities of our cities and rural areas; domestically in Pakistan as a whole; and beyond that in the international and global community we all inhabit.
Learning Outcomes
Students who graduate at Habib University in the SDP Program will have acquired:
- A solid grounding in economic, political, social, and cultural issues, which will enable them to properly locate issues in relation to a wider context
- Critical thinking skills, which will enable them to contemplate problems from a variety of out-of-the-box perspectives
- Analytical skills, which will enable them to understand a given issue in its complexity and produce an adequate assessment
- A creative and imaginative approach to problem solving, which will enable them to formulate innovative and effective solution
- Strong communication skills, not confined only to verbal and written communication, but also including traditional and multimedia platforms
- Flexible planning capabilities, which will enable them to be both independent and reliable when working on their own, as well as collegial and effective team members
- An appreciation for diversity and its intrinsic value, which will enable them to operate and thrive in a host of different settings, interacting with people of diverse social and cultural backgrounds
Requirements for the Major
A major in BSc (Honors) in Social Development and Policy requires completion1 of 38 courses and a minimum of 124 credit hours of coursework, with a minimum CGPA of 2.33, as shown in the table below:
| Requirements | Course Category | Number of Courses to complete |
| Habib Liberal Core | University Core | 102 |
| SDP Program Core (9 courses2)
| Social Change & Development | 1 |
| Research Methods (Qualitative & Quantitative) | 22 | |
| Public Policy I & II | 2 | |
| Social Theory I & II | 2 | |
| Data Analytics | 1 | |
| International Political Economy | 1 | |
| Concentration in one of the four areas3 (5 courses) | – 1. Social Anthropology SOC/ANTH (5 courses) | |
| Introduction to Anthropology | 1 | |
| Introduction to Sociology | 1 | |
| Cultures of greed | 1 | |
| Electives | 2 | |
| – 2. Development Planning & Management DPM (5 courses) | ||
| Program management & community approaches | 1 | |
| Development planning, implementation & evaluation | 1 | |
| Electives | 3 | |
| – 3. Governance & Political Development GPD (5 courses) | ||
| Introduction to politics | 1 | |
| Global governance | 1 | |
| Security studies | 1 | |
| Electives | 2 | |
| – 4. Economy of Development ECON (5 courses) | ||
| Introduction to microeconomics | 1 | |
| Introduction to macroeconomics | 1 | |
| History of economic thought | 1 | |
| Electives | 2 | |
| SDP Electives | SDP Electives | 3 |
| Summer Practicum | Summer Practicum course in 2nd / 3rd year | 1 |
| Vernacular Languages | Language courses I, II & III | 3 |
| Senior Research Seminar | Senior research seminar & Thesis/SDP elective | 2 |
| Free electives | Electives | 6 |
| Over All | 38 |
1 The requirements may be altered to enhance the learning experience.
2 One course double counted in Habib Liberal core as well as in SDP core.
3 Up to a maximum of two concentrations can be completed.
Career Prospects
SDP graduates have found employment in:
- Financial institutions
- Banks
- Research organizations
- Media companies
- Multi-national corporations
- Publishing houses
- Think tanks
- NGOs
- Software
- IT companies
- Education sector
Some students decided to launch their own start-ups and businesses. A number of our graduates decided to pursue further studies, mostly at the Masters’ level, in prestigious universities either in Pakistan or abroad. Recently, a number of SDP graduates have also been able to win the prestigious Fulbright scholarship.
