Background Information

The Master’s program Rural and regional development (MC) has an interdisciplinary nature, and is designed for graduates of cycle I, for holders of Bachelor of Arts degrees with majors in the following areas of study: Geography, Environmental protection, Economics and management for the farm and food sectors, Economics and rural development policies, Business administration for the farm and food sector, Farm produce marketing, Farm cooperation and European Economic Integration, Rural tourism and other majors in economics. Also, this master’s program would be beneficial for the Master’s graduates in other areas: Environmental sciences, Environment protection management, Energy and Environment, Marketing, Trade etc.
The Master’s program Rural and regional development ensures the training of highly qualified specialists with an extensive theoretical vision and practical background on the strategic principles of rural and regional development.  The graduates will acquire extensive knowledge and skills in the area of promotion and implementation of rural and regional development policies during the core courses: Regional and rural development policies, Resource potential of regional development; Urban and rural planning, Basics of regional management, Climate change, Geographic information systems.
The syllabus is developed through specialty course units: Economics of renewable resources; Investments in the rural areas; Regional marketing; Risk-taking in entrepreneurship, Natural hazards, Cooperation in environmental economy. Specialty optional subjects provide the master’s students with opportunity to design individual pathways career training.

Upon graduation, the Master’s program graduates will have the following skills:

General skills:

• manage the flow of information related to area of endeavor that is always on the rise;
• undertake research in the field and experiments of modeling for the purpose of evaluation of efficiency of rural and regional development project components;
• estimate the importance of achievements in the area of Regional and Rural Development for the society;
• apply innovative technologies, expertise technologies, technologies for modeling, and up-to-date informational technologies in the field;
• design and implement projects for scientific research in the field.
• communicate and disseminate the results of research;
• self-evaluate his/her own performance in the area of endeavor.

Specific skills:

• develop and implement rural and regional projects in various areas in order to generate economic, technological, social and cultural changes;
• identify the components of value chain of a rural and regional project;
• establish the resource potential of projects and ensure their efficiency in accordance with the established tasks and strategy;
• identify and evaluate the risks in the area of regional and rural development;
• forecast the main areas for evaluation of rural and regional planning and ensure adjustment of project management system in accordance with changes occurring in business environment;
• propose ideas for settling some issues specific for designing and developing rural and regional projects.
• establish the priorities of interdisciplinary studies in scientific research in the area;
• adapt the scientific achievements from other areas to the investigations associated with Regional and rural development
• apply up-to-date management techniques in the area of innovational business administration;
• interpret the concepts and theories of contemporary economics with a view to perform his/her own work-paper;

Institutes involved in achieving the program

National Institute for Economic Research
Institute for Environment and Geography
Botanical Garden (Institute)
Energy Institute

Core and applied scientific areas

Develop and implement regional and rural strategies in the field of economy. Estimate the economic, social, political, cultural risks specific for a region. The balanced economic development of area, depending on certain non-biased and biased factors: change of economic conditions prompted by new areas of economy or the decline of the old ones; uneven regional economic growth; migration of population towards developed areas, etc. Social and economic aspects of development of Republic of Moldova (regional economic development, integrated and participatory planning, institutional capacity, local and central level financial resources, experience in implementing regional projects and intercommunity partnerships). Management of intellectual resources of enterprises for the setting up of regional clusters, regional potential for international trade, regional markets, regional issues of development of quality system within an enterprise, management of various entrepreneurship projects adjusted to regional specific nature.

Employment prospects

The graduates of the Master’s program Rural and regional development may apply for various positions within the organizations directly related to the specialty such as the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Environment and their field subdivisions. Concurrently, they can work as scientific researchers within the centers of academy; they can work as experts and researchers within the labs of economic and environmental research, within community agencies and NGOs, academic staff, including developing their own businesses. Also, they can follow-up on their investigations as PhD students within UnASM as well as PhD schools of other universities and branch institutes.

Academic integrity

Career development is focused on active learning (through analysis, synthesis and investigations), the student being placed in the center of academic activity, substantiating his/her interest and curiosity towards the phenomena that occur in environment. Concurrently, it is essential to have respect for the knowledge produced by others, by showing the source of quotation. It is forbidden to cheat during exams, while writing papers, tests, during individual work and while developing reports, essays. It is important to have proper interrelationship among students and between students and academic staff. Observation of civic and academic conduct rules will ensure a process of high quality training.