Brief History of Department:
Department of Human Development and Family Studies began its journey as an independent department in 1974 by the name Child Development when Dharwad was a sub campus of University of Agricultural Sciences, Hebbal, Bangalore. After the bifurcation of the University from UAS, Bangalore, the department became full fledged department under College of Rural Home-Science of the newly established University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad. The nomenclature of the department was changed to Human Development in the year 1993 till 2010. From the academic year 2011-12, the department was again renamed as Human Development and Family Studies under College of Community Science and the same is continued till today. The mandate of the department is to provide professional knowledge and relevant skills in the subject areas through teaching, appraise the students with different methods and techniques of assessment throughout lifespan, facilitate holistic personality development of the students through opportunity for co-curricular programs, exposure to various entrepreneurial opportunities in the field of human development, undertaking research related to current issues/problems and strengthening linkages with other teaching, research institutions and professionals. The department is offering courses in recent advances in the field of human development and family studies including dynamics of human development, theories of human development, methods and techniques of assessment, guidance and counseling, early childhood education, gender issues, programme development for vulnerable groups like children, women, elderly, differently abled children, gender issues and human ecology for Post Graduate degree. The department offers PG and Ph.D courses as per the BSMA curriculum from 2022 onwards. The major areas of research by student’s focuses on women issues, children with special needs, issues related to adolescents, early childhood education, development of psychometric tools, alternative family systems, vulnerable families, infant studies, gerontology and other recent issues of relevance. The strength of the department is a well established laboratory nursery school, which facilitates students to observe and study the development of young children and hands on training for pre-school management and practical experiences for conducting different activities for early childhood children. The laboratory nursery is equipped with various play equipments and teaching learning aids for enhancing overall development of young children. Besides this, it also helps the working mothers and community by providing crèche facility for children. The Assessment centre is well equipped with standardized tools/scales. Hands on training is provided to the students on different methods and techniques to assess various facets of developments. Department organizes various parent teacher meetings and parent awareness programs to enlighten them on various topics related to child development, behavioral problems and parenting. Students get an exposure to various centers/ institutions under different courses which facilitates students to learn through practical exposures. The department has executed three projects funded by ICAR, one by DST, two by GoK and seven by SCP/STP. As on today 201 students have completed their Masters and 41 students have completed their Ph.D degrees. The students are recruited in various fields at various capacities such as Joint Director, CDPO, ACDPO, Supervisor in Dept. of Women and Child Development. Counsellors, Professors, District Coordinators, Relationship Managers, Development Officers, Research Associates, Young Professionals and ECCE teachers are other avenues for the students of HDFS department. The staff and students of the department have been recognized with various awards such as Best Teacher award, Best Researcher award, Best Extension worker award, Best oral presentation awards, Best poster presentation awards and many more. The department in totality aims at imparting education in diverse areas, including child and adolescent development, adult development and aging, biological and psychological aspects of human development, family studies, interventional and developmental research methods. The department emphasizes equally on theory, research and its application through research and extension activities.
Projects executed by the department
| Sl.no. | Name of the teacher | Title of the project | Funding agency | Period | Amount sanctioned (In lakhs) |
| 1. | Dr. Venkamma Gaonkar | Centre for Parent Education and Counseling | ICAR, New Delhi | 1999-2001 | 10.48 |
| 2. | Dr. Venkamma Gaonkar | “Slow learners: Developing instructional packages to accelerate learning | ICAR, New Delhi | 2002-2005 | 8.22 |
| 3. | Dr. Venkamma Gaonkar | Increasing intergenerational solidarity and coping with aging” | ICAR, New Delhi | 2005-2007 | 6.13 |
| 4. | Dr. Prema Patil | Integrated services for the welfare of senior citizens | DST, New Delhi | 2010-2013 | 8.76 |
| 5. | Dr. Manjula Patil | Innovative strategies to optimize mental health of farmers | GoK, Karnataka | 2013-2014 | 3.50 |
| 6. | Dr. Pushpa Khadi | Establishment of day care centre for elderly and young children | GoK, Karnataka | 2015-2020 | 8.00 |
