Who we are
The School of Humanities and Social Sciences is one of the foundation Schools of the University of Zambia and one of its thirteen Schools today. It has offered degree programmes since teaching first commenced at the University in March 1966, and for more than six decades it has played a central part in the University’s academic life, in the disciplines it sustains, the professionals it has trained, and the research it has contributed to national and international debate. The school brings together eleven academic departments spanning the humanities, the social sciences and several applied professional fields. Its work is deliberately interdisciplinary, and this can be seen in the questions our students and staff pursue – about population, poverty, governance, gender, health, culture, language, communication and development, among others.
Our origins
The School was established to help address the acute shortage of trained personnel that faced Zambia at independence. Its purpose was to provide a broadly based degree that would equip graduates to respond constructively and flexibly to the developing needs of both the public and private sectors. In its early years it absorbed the former Oppenheimer College of Social Services and continued the diploma in Social Work that had originated there, the beginning of a tradition of professional social work education that the school maintains to this day.
During its first nine years, the school’s departments were organised around single fields of study. In the 1974/75 academic year they were restructured along interdisciplinary lines, grouping related fields together, an approach that still shapes the school today. The departmental map has shifted over time. In 1973/74 the humanities subjects of English, French, Geography and History moved into the administrative structure of the School of Education. However, because degrees in those areas remained available within the school, it retained its designation as the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and in 1988/89 the departments of History and of Literature and Languages transferred back. Successive reorganisations have since produced the eleven departments that make up the school today.
Our departments
The School comprises the following academic departments:
- Arts, Languages and Literary Studies
- Demography, Population Sciences, Monitoring and Evaluation
- Development Studies
- Economics
- Gender Studies
- Government and Management Studies
- Historical and Archaeological Studies
- Media and Communication Studies
- Philosophy and Applied Ethics
- Psychology and Behavioural Sciences
- Social Work and Sociology
Together these departments provide a diverse academic environment for teaching, research, innovation and community service. Detailed information on staff, research interests, programme requirements and areas of specialisation is available on the respective departmental pages.
What we offer
The School offers a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes designed to meet the educational, professional and research needs of students from Zambia and beyond. All programmes are accredited by the Higher Education Authority (HEA).
Undergraduate
Four-year programmes lead to the Bachelor of Arts (BA), offered with specialisation across a range of disciplines, as well as the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Bachelor of Media and Journalism Studies (BMJ), Bachelor of Public Relations and Advertising (PRA), and Bachelor of Social Work (BSW). Bachelor of Arts programmes are available through both regular and distance learning modes of study.
Postgraduate
The School offers Master’s and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programmes across its academic disciplines, supporting both taught and research pathways.
Specialised and professional programmes
Alongside its core degrees, the School runs professional programmes at diploma, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels. These include the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA); Master of Arts in Defence and Security Studies; Master of Arts in Economic Policy Management; Master of Arts in Communication for Development; Master of Arts in Social Protection; Master of Arts in Human Rights, Governance and Development; Postgraduate Diploma in Monitoring and Evaluation; Bachelor of Arts in Intelligence and Security (and Diploma in Defence and Security Studies, among others.
Short courses and professional development
The school also provides professional development and tailor-made short courses across a wide range of fields, designed for organisations and individual professionals. These can be found on the pages of individual departments.
Our purpose
A central aim of our degree programmes is to give graduates a clear awareness of society and its challenges, together with the analytical and practical skills to help address them. Our teaching is intended to produce graduates who are innovative, ethically grounded and capable of providing thoughtful leadership in a rapidly changing society — in government, business, the media, the non-governmental sector, academia and the professions.
Research and community service carry the same purpose outward. Through scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, the School seeks to deepen understanding of society, inform policy and practice, and contribute to Zambia’s national development and to wider international scholarship.
Our community
The school is home to more than 8,000 students, making it one of the largest academic communities at the University of Zambia, together with over 160 academic and professional staff across its eleven departments and a growing network of alumni in Zambia and abroad.
Find us
The School is located at the University’s Great East Road Campus in Lusaka. The Office of the Dean is on the second floor of the Humanities Building, opposite the Main Library and close to the Central Administration Building.