Amrit Thapa

Amrit Thapa is a senior lecturer in the International Educational Development Program and an instructor in the Education Entrepreneurship program at Penn GSE. He also serves as a lecturer in the Department of Sociology in the School of Arts and Sciences. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, India, and M.Phil. and Ph.D. in economics and education from Columbia University. Dr. Thapa is also a research affiliate at Penn’s Population Studies Center, a Fulbright specialist, an affiliated researcher for the Center for Benefit–Cost Studies of Education at Penn GSE, consultant to UNESCO Institute of Statistics, and an advisory board member of the International Journal of Educational Development. In 2019, Dr. Thapa was honored with the prestigious Penn GSE Excellence in Teaching Award.

Dr. Thapa’s current research focuses on economics of education, education program evaluation/monitoring and evaluation, climate change and education, studies of privatization and marketization of education in developing countries, the relationship between education and economic development, higher education, school climate, and education policy. Dr. Thapa’s research spans South Asia, Africa, North America and Latin America. Currently his research projects include study of impact of floods on children’s learning in rural India, simulation studies on learning equity among marginalized communities in low- and middle-income countries, and research on relationship between education and economic development in Nepal. Dr. Thapa is also involved in a number of school climate/socio-emotional learning related research works, particularly in the development and validity and reliability studies of school climate assessment tools.