President
Professional Biography
Rinchen Dorji (PhD) has started his career as a schoolteacher and has also served as curriculum officer and teacher educator in the Royal University of Bhutan. In his 23 years of career, primarily as a teacher educator, he has served in various leadership capacities providing him with a wide range of experience for his professional growth and development. When the Primary Teacher’s Certificate (PTC) programme at the erstwhile Teacher Training College (TTC), at Rinpung Campus in Paro was upgraded to a full-fledged Bachelor Degree of Education with the expansion of the institute to the National Institute of Education at Nangka Campus, in his capacity as the Programme Leader of the B.Ed Secondary, Rinchen has played an instrumental role in assisting the College Management to make a successful transition. Rinchen also served as the Project Component Manager of Support to Teacher Education Project (STEP) funded by Helvetas Swiss Development Corporation from 2003 to 2007 that lead to the overhauling of the academic programmes in both Paro and Samtse Colleges of Education. Rinchen was also Programme Coordinator of the first ever part-time M.Ed in Educational Leadership and Management at Paro College of Education, started initially through the support of the Canadian International Development Cooperation (CIDA) in early 2000. In between, Rinchen served as a Curriculum Officer under the Department of Academic Affairs, at the Office of the Vice Chancellor, Thimphu for four years (2008-2012). His most recent leadership responsibility as the Dean of Research and Industrial Linkages at Paro College of Education (2012-2014). Rinchen has a Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) from the University of New England (UNE), Armidale, NSW, in Australia. His doctoral study was supported by the University of New England Postgraduate Research Award (UNERA, 2014-2017). In 2008, he completed MA in Special Educational Needs from a consortium of universities in Europe i.e. University of Roehampton, London, Fontys University of Applied Sciences, Tilburg in The Netherlands and Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic through the Erasmus Mundus Scholarship from the European Union. Rinchen also has a Master Degree in Educational Foundations (Human Development & Counselling) from the University of New Brunswick (UNB), Fredericton, Canada (2002). He has done his Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) from the then National Institute of Education, Samtse in 1996 after the completion of Bachelor Degree of Arts (English Honours) from Sherubtse College, Kanglung in 1995. Rinchen is passionate about academic discourses and research in the area of teacher morale and motivation, empowerment of teachers, students and parents in education, school leadership, inclusive education and disability studies. He is compassionate and has a strong sense of empathy for others that serve as a source of his commitment and interest in social services and charity related activities. Rinchen is credited for starting the Tarayana Club at Paro College of Education and has served as its advisor from 2005-2007. In addition to the primary academic and other professional responsibilities, Rinchen has also been actively involved and contributed in numerous other government initiatives and projects such as (1) Member of the Board of Directors of the Armed Forces School Project, His Majesty’s Secretariat, Tashichodzong, Thimphu (2009-2011); (2) Member of the Inter-Ministerial Working Committee on the Recognition of University Degrees, Royal Government of Bhutan (2009-2011); (3) Chair of the Working Committee on the development of Special Education Policy (2008-2010); and (4) Member of the National Steering Committee on Inclusive Education in Bhutan (2005-2007). As a leader, Rinchen believes in a leadership inspired by the four immeasurable qualities of Buddhism namely སྙིང་རྗེ། (Compassion); དགའ་བ། (Joy); བཏང་སྙོམས། (Equanimity); and བྱམས་པ། (Love) to create an organisational climate that is empowering and provides a strong sense of unconditional positive regard, trust, belongingness, security and happiness to all employees for the general health and wellbeing of the institution. You can contact Rinchen Dorji at rinchendorji.sce@rub.edu.btDeans
PROFESSIONAL BIOGRAPHY
Karma Utha (PhD) is an Assistant Professor in Samtse College of Education, Royal University of Bhutan. She has been a teacher educator since 2000 and has taught research proposal development, advanced studies, teaching skills, teaching strategy, physics education, electronics, electricity and magnetism, optics and waves, magnetism and electromagnetism, heat and thermodynamics, properties of matter and energy, and mechanics at undergraduate and postgraduate level. She was the Programme Leader of Diploma in School Science Laboratory Management (DSSLM). She initiated and led the DSSLM programme development. She was also the Programme Leader of Post Graduate Diploma in Education (PgDE) and led the PgDE part-time programme development for private school teachers. At the national level, she was involved in developing science curriculum framework for classes IV to XII and developing school science text books and teachers’ manual that are being used in the schools at present. She has conducted numerous professional development workshops for school teachers, University lecturers, teacher educators, and school laboratory assistants on curriculum implementation, assessment, university teaching and learning, and school science laboratory management. Currently she is the Dean of Academic Affairs in the College. She provides academic support to faculty and students. She successfully led the development and launch of M. Ed in Science and Maths programme, PgDE part-time programme, and Master of Arts in Contemplative Counselling Psychology programme as a Dean. An ardent believer of ‘no child being left behind’ in learning, she is actively involved in refining students learning thorough improving students’ classroom participation, making summative assessment fair, giving effective feedback on students’ work, and undertaking research based teaching and learning. Email: kutha.sce@rub.edu.bt Read more...PROFESSIONAL BIOGRAPHY
Karma Gayphel is a Teacher Educator and a Counselling faculty in the Centre for Contemplative Counselling Education and Research at Samtse College of Education, Royal University of Bhutan. He is actively involved in training both teachers and counsaellors at different levels. He pursued his Masters Degree in Human Service Counselling from Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia. He has been conferred the title of ICAP I (International Certified Addiction Professional – I) by the International Centre for Credentialing and Education (ICCE), Colombo Plan Secretariat. He is also a National Trainer in the field of Addiction and trained several addiction professionals including school counsellors, health professionals and peer helpers in the country. As a professional counsellor, he set up Counselling Service in the college inviting students and others in the community to come forward to avail counselling services. His approach to helping people is based on his appreciation towards the inherent wisdom individuals have, the interdependent relationship between people, their mind and body, and environment. Therefore, he is committed to an integration of scientific findings and ancient wisdom approaches to healing people with distress. He was the Head for Counselling and Psychology Department, and the Programme Leader for the Post-graduate Diploma in Guidance and Counselling for several years during which he was the key player in the counselling programme development and actively involved in the review of several other programmes at the college. Passionate about the need for students’ wellbeing to promote meaningful learning atmosphere, he has facilitated several professional development workshops for the school teachers and principals particularly on Mentoring, Positive Discipline and Counselling skills. Currently, he is involved in the collaborative project, between the faculty of Samtse College of Education and Naropa University, Colorado, USA, on multicultural perspectives and research in contemplative counselling. He is also a member of International Society of Substance Use Professionals (ISSUP) since 2015.
Email:kgayphel.sce@rub.edu.bt Read more...