Academic System

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Semesters and Class Schedule

There are three regular semesters – fall, spring, and summer. The duration of a regular semester is 15 working weeks. Usually the fall semester will commence in September, the spring semester will commence in January and summer semester will commence in May every year. Classes are held in the evenings, Sunday through Thursday. Each course will meet once in a week for three hours. However, the duration of a class may be of 60 minutes or of 90 minutes depending upon the requirement of the course.

Course Load

A student may register in a minimum of 6 credits and a maximum of 15 credits. The maximum allowed period to complete the program is three years from the date of first admission to the university.

Credit Transfer and Waivers

Credit transfer of courses same as or similar to MDS courses of BRAC University from degree programs of BRAC University or other universities with acceptable academic system and standards may be considered up to 15 credits provided they have B grades. However, grade-equivalence will be determined by the BRAC University authority.

Courses for Audit and Credit

A student of the MDS or other programs and alumni of BRAC University may enrol in one or more courses for audit on payment of 50% tuition and other fees. This facility will be open to students of other universities acceptable to BRAC University. The performance of such students will not be evaluated or graded and they will receive a grade ‘AU’.

A student who is currently enrolled in other master programs of BRAC University or  in  master program  of other universities acceptable to BRAC University  may enroll as a credit students in at best 10 courses (30 credits) on payment of full tuition and other fees of the university.

The above mentioned facilities are open to BRAC or other development organizations but the candidate must be acceptable to BRAC University.

Course Numbering System

Each course is identified by a two-part numbering system. The first part with three alphabets represents the subject area and the second part refers to the level of the course. The graduate courses are numbered with 500 and 600 series and numbers are intended to indicate progressively more demanding content of the course and correspondingly increasing competence on the part of the students enrolled in the course. For example, MDS605 is an advanced course and it is assumed that a student registering in this course has already completed one or more 500 level courses.

Credit Hours

Credit hours for a course are assigned on the basis of a 15 week semester. One (1) credit hour means that the course meets once every week for one hour in each class; 3 credits means that it will meet three times or three hours per week.

Performance Evaluation

The performance of the students will be evaluated throughout the semester by class tests, quizzes, assignments, and midterm exams. End of semester evaluation includes final exams, term papers, project reports etc. Numerical scores earned by a student in tests, exams, assignments etc are cumulated and are converted to letter grades at the end of the semester.

Grading System

The grades at the BRAC University are indicated in the following manner:

A         (4.0): excellent

A-        (3.7)

B+       (3.3)

B         (3.0): good

B-        (2.7)

C+       (2.3)

C         (2.0): fair

C-        (1.7)

D+       (1.3)

D         (1.0): poor

D-        (0.7)

F          (0.0): failure

P:         Pass

I:          Incomplete

W:       Withdrawal

An Incomplete (I) grade is assigned when for a compelling reason a student could not complete the course requirement. A Withdrawal (W) is assigned when a student withdraws from a course after the dead line for formal withdrawal.

GPA Computation

The Grade Point Average (GPA) is computed in the following manner:

              Sum of (Grade points x Credits)

GPA =  --------------------------------------

                Sum of Credits

Academic Standing

Students will be expected to maintain set standards in their academic work. They should be taking the requisite number of courses and maintain satisfactory grades in these courses. In particular, students of the MDS Program are expected to maintain a GPA of 2.5 (both semester and cumulative), otherwise the student will be put on probation for the following semester. If the student fails to maintain a GPA of 2.5 in the following semester, then the university will review the student’s record and recommend further action which may include options such as changing course of study, taking extra courses or in some cases withdrawing from the university. Students whose grade point average is below 1.0 in their first semester may be asked to withdraw from the university and apply for readmission later when they are better prepared.