17 December 2004
At a ceremony in Dili, East Timor, today twelve postgraduate students were congratulated for completing a new graduate certificate on applied Social Science methods offered in Dili by Charles Darwin University.
As part of the course, the students, lecturers from the national university in Dili and officers from the Land and Property Directorate, completed research projects on land rights issues.
The students are working on a larger Land Law Program conducted in East Timor by the American development agency ARD.
"The Land Law Program helps the government of East Timor draft new laws regulating state property, resolution of land disputes, land rights and land title," Dr Dennis Shoesmith, Head of Charles Darwin University's School of Creative Arts and Humanities, explained.
The course was jointly delivered by Dr Dennis Shoesmith and Mr Rod Nixon from Charles Darwin University and Dr Faustino Gomes, Director of the National Centre for Scientific Investigation in Dili with support from ARD.
The course was funded by USAID. Dr Edwin Urresta, the representative of ARD in East Timor, said that the course had improved the capacity of the East Timorese graduates to undertake applied social science research of direct benefit to the people of East Timor."
At the ceremony, the students were congratulated by the Rector of the National University of East Timor, Dr Benjamin de Araujo e Corte-Real. Charles Darwin University has a Memorandum of Understanding with the national university.
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