Two-Year M. A. Programme in English Studies

English Studies, over the years, has transmediated from literary focus to cultural focus. The culture orientedness of the discipline has made it multidisciplinary in nature. The introduction of elements of language, classical to post modern literatures, regional, national and international literatures, folklore, oral literature, anthropology, ecology, philosophy and media have made the scope of English Studies wider and beyond comprehension.

M.A. English Studies Programme of the Central University of Tamil Nadu is a unique one. Though British literature form the core courses the programme includes courses in dravidian, non-dravidian, dalit, Canadian, Australian, American, Indo-Aryan and Tibeto-Burmese literatures, media, language teaching, cultural aesthetics and criticism and ecocriticism. English linguistics and Translation Studies in the programme reinforce the grounding courses in English. Twenty courses in four semesters constitute the academic structure of the programme.

Students are expected to submit assignments, make presentations and do fieldwork as part of the course work. Apart from the scholastic engagements in the class, the students are trained in theatrics, videography, film criticism, research and English language speaking by experts in the field, and are given opportunities to participate in art and media workshops and conferences.

Five-Year Integrated  M. Sc. Programme in Economics

The Central University of Tamil Nadu in collaboration with the Madras School of Economics (MSE) offers the five-year Integrated M. Sc. Economics, divided into ten modules. First six modules will be taught at the Central University of Tamil Nadu, the remaining four modules will be taught at the mentoring institute Madras School of Economics. After the completion of the third year students are opted to select any one of the following courses at MSE. i) M. Sc. General Economics ii) M. Sc. Financial Economics iii) M. Sc. Actuarial Economics iv) M. Sc. Applied Quantitative Economics V) M. Sc. Environmental economics.

The core courses lay the foundations for the basic theory and give students a feel for how it is being played out in real economies. The courses in Statistics, Mathematics, Econometrics and Mathematical Economics equip them with a good range of skills and tools for quantitative analysis. In addition, depending on the demand, some of the following courses are offered as sixth-semester electives: Public Finance, Comparative Developmental Experience, Work Labour Development,Accounting and Financial Management, Economics of Finance, Introduction to Econometrics. The students need to take any two of the above elective courses. All these courses are application oriented and very relevant for today's liberalized economic environment.

Two-Year  M. Sc. Programme in General Economics

Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Current economic models emerged from the broader field of political economy in the late 19th century. A primary stimulus for the development of modern economics was the desire to use an empirical approach more akin to the physical sciences. Economics aims to explain how economies work and how economic agents interact. Economic analysis is applied throughout societies, in business, finance and government, but also in crime, education, family, health, law, politics, religion, social institutions, war, and science.

The PG Degree course is a two-year course, divided into four modules. Each module consists of four papers. In the first year, there will be 8 core courses. In the second year, the first module comprises two core papers and two optional (elective) papers. It will be taught under the guidance of an Advisory Committee comprising eminent persons from both the industry as well as academics.

The core courses lay the foundations for the basic theory and give students a feel for how it is being played out in real economics. The courses in Statistics, Optimization Techniques, Econometrics and Applied Econometrics equip them with a good range of skills and tools for quantitative analysis. On the other hand, the compulsory course in Fiscal and Public Policy provides a unique opportuinity to understand the policy prescription for a developing country like India. In addition, depending on the demand, some of the following courses are offered as one-semester electives, i.e. Development Economics, Environmental Economics, Financial Economics, Health Economics, Games and Information. All these courses are application-oriented and very relevent to today's liberalized economic environment. There is also an emphasis on independent research. Students are required to do term papers in most of the courses and each student undertakes a significant research project during the final semester. Interested students take up a summer internship programme at the end of the first year, which greatly helps them to get an orientation in applied work.

M. Sc. Financial Economics is a two-year Post Graduate degree programme in Financial Economics. Globally, the financial sectors have, in recent years, been expanding at phenomenal rates and witnessing dramatic changes in their range and sophistication of operations. Hence, there is increasing demand for financial practitioners who are not only equipped with a good foundation in economics, mathematics and statistics but who are also well trained in the emerging theoretical and empirical tools for a better understanding of the sector. The Financial Economics course is meant to basically cater to this demand.

The course is divided into four modules. Each module consists of four papers. In the first- year, there will be 8 core courses. In the second year, the first module comprises two core papers and two optional (elective) papers. The second module comprises one core paper and three optional (elective) papers. It will be taught under the guidance of an Advisory Committee comprising eminent persons from both the analytics industry as well as academics.

The core courses lay the foundations for the basic theory and give students a feel for how it is being played out in real economies. The courses in Statictics, Mathematical Methods, Econometrics and Applied Econometrics equip them with a good range of skills and tools for quantitative analysis. In addition, a range of one-semester elective courses to choose from are offered in the following specialized subjects- Risk Management, Investiment Banking, Finanacial Regulation and Banking Supervision, Games and Information, stochastic Models, Economics of Insurance, Empirical Methods in Finance. All these courses are application oriented and very relevant for today's liberalized financial environment. There is also an emphasis on independent research. Students are required to do term papers in most of the courses and each student undertakes a significant research project during the second year. Interested students take up a summer internship programme at the end of the first year, which greatly helps them to get an orientation in applied work.

Two-Year M. Sc. Programme in Actuarial Economics

The postgraduate degree in actuarial economics is a two-year intensive course, providing necessary training needed for an expert in actuarial field who analyzes the financial consequences of risk. Such experts can work, apart from education and research, in insurance companies, consulting/investment firms, credit rating agencies, government and employee benefit department of large corporations, hospitals, and banks. The work profile includes (i) research and training (ii) designing insurance and pension plans (iii) determining insurance pricing and (iv) asset-liability management.

In recent years, there has been a significant change in the global financial industries, which have led to an enormous expansion in the financial sectors of many countries, including India. One of the most significant developments has been the privatization and large-scale expansion of insuranceindustry, which has led to an increased demand for actuaries. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) mandates that life insurance companies must have at least one appointed actuary while the general insurers can meet their actuarial needs with the help of consultants.

This course is designed keeping in view the increasing demand for actuarial economists. Hence, it is designed essentially to deal with the education of economics of insurance, insurance risk and financial management. In the process, the course draws inputs from mathematical, statistical and economic analysis involving a wide range of decision-making process in insurance, investment and financial planning and management.

Being designed to equip the learners with the underlying processes of decision making under uncertainty, this Programme seeks to offer in the first year, comprising two semesters, an intensive training in understanding economic and financial theories, which are useful to study the uncertain future events and will sufficiently cover the latest syllabi prescribed for the Core Technical stage by the Actuarial Society of India (ASI). The third and the fourth semesters attempt to provide the opportunity to the students to opt for electives from the number of choices including applied econometrics. In addition, this program provides a valuable opportunity to the students to (i) equip their computation skills by learning econometric applications using software (such as EVIEWS and STATA) and (ii) undertake a dissertation in the final semester to encourage active learning in a real life situation.

Two-Year M. Sc. Programme in Applied Quantitative Finance

The PG Degree course is a two-year course, divided into four modules. Each module consists of four papers. In the first-year, there will be 8 core courses. In the second year, the first module comprises two core papers and two optional (elective) papers. The second module comprises of one core and two optional (elective) papers. It will be taught under the guidance of an Advisory Committee comprising eminent persons from both the analytics industry as well as academics.

Recent advances in statistical, econometric and analytical modeling have vastly improved our understanding of financial market dynamics. Our ability to adequately capture stylized facts in financial markets depends crucially on the development of good models, the estimation of the developed models and their evaluations. Consequently, there has been an exponential increase in the demand for qualified analysts. The course is geared towards presenting the central concepts in clear, analytical, mathematical and computational detail with an emphasis on the underlying intuition. In addition, Business Case Study would be provided wherever it is necessary. The intendedparticipants consists of students and professionals who have an interest in equity research, retail and investment banking, risk management, as well as derivative markets. In particular, the possible participants would include graduate students, industry professionals, and regulators. We aim to deliver a program that is valued by employers in financial markets across the globe and to ensure that the participants are ready for the market place. All these courses are application oriented and very relevant for today’s liberalized economic environment. There is also an emphasis on independent research. Students are required to do term papers in most of the courses and each student undertakes a significant research project during the final semester. Interested students take up a summer internship programme at the end of the first year, which greatly helps them to get an orientation in applied work.

Two-Year M. Sc. Programme in Environmental Economics

Concerns about over-exploitation of resources and degradation of environment have been on rise in India and other countries over the past fifty years. High economic growth often comes at the cost of environmental degradation as seen in several countries and hence careful attention to sound environmental policies is extremely important if India were follow sustainable development path. Environmental and resource policies must be based on economic rationale. Growing evidence on trade-environmental interlinkages and potential challenges that the world economies have to face due to global climate change provide additional motivations for studying environmental economics. Businesses world over have started understanding the importance of doing ‘green’ business. The Master of Science (M. Sc.) in Environmental Economics (EE) is introduced against this backdrop.

The objective of the M. Sc. program in Environmental Economics is to provide students with rigorous and specialist training in economics of the environment. The degree is designed for individuals with a strong background in mathematics and good exposure to basic economics. On completion of the Master degree all students will have well developed skills in quantitative analysis and modeling and an understanding of the economic approaches to resolve the challenges of resource over-exploitation and misuse of the environment.

M. Sc. in Environmental Economics is a two-year intensive course, providing necessary training needed for a well-qualified environmental economist. The degree consists of eleven core courses, four elective courses and a project work (spread over third and fourth semesters). A total of sixty-eight credits have to be earned for successful completion of the degree. Almost all courses are analytical in nature involving application of mathematical, statistical and econometric analyses. In addition, this program provides a valuable opportunity to the students to (i) enhance their computational skills through hands-on experience in using econometric software (such as EVIEWS and STATA), Geographical Information Systems and (ii) undertake a dissertation in the final semester to apply the acquired knowledge to a real life problem.

Two-Year M. A. Programme in Social Work in Mental Health

The National Mental Health Program (NMHP) in India was launched in 1982 and aimed at providing minimum mental health care to maximum through integration of mental health services within the existing health care system. This ambitious Programme failed to achieve any of its targets over the subsequent decades. In early 2001, the NMHP was radically revamped. It was re- launched as part of the Tenth Five-Year Plan (2002–07) and the budgetary allocation was increased more than 7-fold. However lack of trained professionals and administrative structures have been responsible for the inability of the program to take off. It is in the context of this gap between the magnitude of mental health problems and the lack of services and trained professionals to address it that the current post graduate program in social work and mental health finds it’s relevance.

With rapid social change and urbanization, there are several vulnerable groups whose
mental health concerns need urgent attention. Some of the examples of these include, urban poor living on the streets and slums, women and children exposed to domestic violence, populations displaced by mega development projects, single women, sexual minorities, people living with HIV/AIDS and so on. In order to be able to comprehend the mental health concerns of these groups, it is vital to move beyond our thinking in the mental health sector and conceptualize training programmes as well as service models that integrate the biological, psychological and interpersonal with the social and the cultural. Thus a training/teaching program that combines ideas of social justice and empowerment along with the knowledge and skills to understand individual and interpersonal distress and problems is a need of the hour. The current post graduate course with a foundation in social work and an incremental training in perspectives and skills in mental health aims to fill this gap. The objectives of the programme are (i) to understand the scope of social work practice in mental health within a development and human rights perspective, (ii) to become responsive to the vast need for comprehensive, ethical mental health services in rural and urban India, with special focus on marginalized and vulnerable groups, (iii) to develop skills in mental health service delivery as well as policy planning, program management, advocacy, activism and research in the mental health sector and (iv) to develop abilities to work in interdisciplinary teams and contexts.