About the Program

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have contributed to dramatic improvements in the productivity of businesses in advanced economies; they have expanded access to information of all sorts, empowered citizens and communities, and helped to strengthen governance. These technologies can be employed to address problems in the developing world as well, where a large proportion of the population lives in poverty and without access to adequate food, nutritional information, education, health care, credit, and other social and economic opportunities.

The Information and Communication Technologies and Development certificate program equips students to work across boundaries to identify, evaluate, and implement solutions to pressing societal problems in the developing world.

The certificate program has three broad components:

• Understanding processes of technology diffusion and adoption in developing regions.

• Acting through the design and deployment of information systems in close collaboration with the communities they are meant to support.

• Redefining the dialogue about the role of technology in the global economic and political processes that affect developing regions.

The Graduate Certificate in Information and Communication Technologies and Development is issued by the School of Information but it is open to all UC Berkeley graduate students. The certificate is in addition to a student’s regular degree program and is designed to complement a wide range of existing degree programs. Upon graduation, you will be issued a certificate in addition to your diploma, and completion of the certificate program will be noted on your official transcript.

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Admissions

Applicants must already be registered UC Berkeley graduate students, in any school or college. Applicants must be in good academic standing (3.0 minimum GPA and making good academic progress). Admission requires the approval of the student’s primary advisor in their home department. To apply to the certificate program, students should complete the Admission Application Form and submit it to ictd-certificate@ischool.berkeley.edu. Students may apply at any time from the beginning of their enrollment in a Berkeley graduate degree program until graduation. We encourage you to apply early; students who have already been admitted to the certificate program will be given enrollment priority for the required course INFO 283.

Certificate Requirements

The Graduate Certificate in ICTD requires both coursework and fieldwork.

Coursework

At least nine units of approved graduate-level or upper-division undergraduate ICTD courses, with a grade of B or higher, including:

• Information and Communications Technology for Development (INFO 283) (3 units)
• One course in social sciences methods from the approved list (3 units)
• Additional ICTD elective(s) from approved list (2 units)
• INFO 290 Special Topics in Information (1 Unit)

Introductory Course

Social Science Methods

Choose one course from this list.

ADDITIONAL ELECTIVES

Choose at least one course from this list.

Fieldwork

At least six weeks of approved fieldwork are required to complete the Graduate Certificate in ICTD. See the Fieldwork section for more details. 

The Certificate Completion Form must be submitted by the last day of instruction of the student’s final semester, after the completion of all certificate requirements.

Fieldwork

Certificate students must complete at least six weeks of eligible, approved development-focused fieldwork.

The goal of the fieldwork requirement is to give students a hands-on experience of day-to-day happenings in a development context. While long-term ethnographic research focuses on forces, factors, histories, and people who play decisive roles in determining social outcomes issues, by situating local relationships, understandings and meanings, within shifting policies and economies, a six-week field trip is geared more towards getting a sense of the way a local partner functions within a community and the lifestyles, everyday interactions, and problems faced by the communities these partners serve.

Eligible Fieldwork

Most eligible fieldwork will be conducted abroad, with an organization involved in development. Students may also receive approval for fieldwork performed locally if the project is with an organization focused on development and the student’s work is clearly development-focused. Eligible fieldwork may include organizations that are not primarily development-oriented if the student is embedded in a division focused on development or ‘emerging markets.’ In some cases, fieldwork may be eligible even if the organization has no international presence, if it has a clear non-profit social mission, working with local underprivileged or marginalized communities. Fieldwork conducted independently (not through an established organization) may be eligible, particularly for Ph.D. students, if the student can demonstrate the project’s development focus.

Arranging Fieldwork

We expect that most eligible fieldwork will be conducted as an internship with a development organization (although some Ph.D. students may instead perform independent research fieldwork).

Students are responsible for arranging their own fieldwork or internships. Trips are usually arranged in conjunction with a local partner. Students will receive limited assistance from I School faculty through their connections and can make use of several highly active ICTD-themed mailing lists, as well as applying their own initiative to secure fieldwork or internship opportunities.

No dedicated funding is available to support student fieldwork; students should seek paid opportunities or otherwise arrange funding themselves (for example, through dissertation grant funds such as from the NSF or Fulbright Foundation).

Fieldwork Approval

Students must submit the Fieldwork Approval Form for approval of the fieldwork for the ICTD certificate. All projects must be approved by the I School ICTD advisory committee.

Deadline: When possible, the form should be submitted at least two months before the expected start date of the fieldwork, in order to allow time for feedback. However, in exceptional cases, the Fieldwork Approval Form can be submitted after the completion of the fieldwork.

Faculty and Instructors