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| MASTER OF DEVELOPMENT STUDIESEngr. Mohd. Abdul Mannan
Save the Children, Bangladesh | Advisor – TVET & CSR, Education for Youth Empowerment (EYE), Child Poverty Sector
I do believe that the MDS course of Brac University helped me to grow a sense of self-worth and re-energised me for building in-depth understanding on development dynamics in the development sector and enhanced my career growth.
aster of Development Studies (MDS) is a praxis-focused program that has an equal emphasis on developing a strong theoretical understanding, learning from the real world, and building practical skills so that the graduates are able to connect theory with practice and design and implement policies and programs that work. In the 21st century, we are living in the so-called VUCA-world—volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous—a world profoundly shaped by the disruptive forces of globalisation, urbanisation, climate change, and technological transformation. In such a world, the development puzzle can only be solved from a multidisciplinary angle. Our MDS program is specially designed to address this multidisciplinary nature of development.
BRAC is the world’s largest non-government organisation (NGO) known for its trailblazing role in generating development innovations that work at the global scale. BIGD, owing to its strategic connection with BRAC, draws heavily on this unique ‘BRAC experience’ of achieving development excellence to enrich the MDS curriculum. Also, central to BRAC’s innovation and successful scaleup is research, which is a core skill that MDS develops.
WHO IS IT FOR?
MDS is for those who want to be the change agents in the pursuit of a just and prosperous world. The program is designed for both fresh graduates aspiring to kickstart their career in the development sector and development professionals who want to transform their skills and knowledge for becoming more effective and advancing their career. MDS is also an apt choice for young bureaucrats motivated to make an impact in public service and private sector professionals with a strong social mandate.
CAREER PATHS
MDS provides the students with a practical set of skills, which are relevant to not just the traditional development sector, but also a wide variety of career choices such as social business, policymaking, advocacy, consulting, teaching, and development research. Our graduates have gone on to work—in Bangladesh and beyond—for top NGOs, multilateral and bilateral organisation, as well as governments and the private sector.
Nusrat Nahid Babi
Private Sector Specialist | The International Finance Corporation
MDS at BIGD, Brac University, is a state-of-the-art master’s program that students can pursue in Bangladesh. It was amazing to connect with global resource persons and attend the classes jointly with international students from around the globe. The program is rich and offers many practical solutions to current development challenges. The choice of faculty members is the best a student can expect in the development space of Bangladesh.
Shorif Mostafiur Rahman Assistant Inspector General (Drawing & Disbursement and Sports & Culture) Bangladesh Police | Police Head Quarter, Dhaka MDS has been an invaluable learning experience for me. As a proud member of Bangladesh Police, I am directly serving the people of this country, and MDS has provided me with a thorough understanding of the real issues of the people I serve. It has provided me with the necessary skills and knowledge to make useful policies for the protection and wellbeing of our people.
AL UMNI
[ MDS FALL 2014 ]
[ MDS FALL 2017]
[ MDS FALL 2016 ]
M
Tania Sharmin Programme Associate Gender Responsive Governance, UN Women, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs and BBS I completed my Master of Development Studies (MDS) under BIGD, Brac University in 2017. The MDS
program allowed me the opportunity to learn about the current trends in the development sector, as well as deepen my understanding of the issues that are particular to the Bangladesh development
context. The rich faculty and diverse peer group enhanced my experience in MDS even further. [ MDS FALL 2017 ]
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MASTER OF DEVELOPMENT STUDIES |
OBJECTIVE
1) Build a solid theoretical grounding, anchored with real-world learning, on diverse development concepts and issues, empowering students to effectively analyse and approach the increasingly complex, interdependent development challenges using a multidisciplinary framework.
2) Equip students with the necessary research and analytical skills for designing high-impact policies and programs as well as monitoring and evaluating development interventions to find what works.
3) Orient the students with the development ecosystem—roles and mechanisms of major players such as national and international development agencies, financial institutions, governments, donors, research institutes, and United Nations (UN) agencies—enabling them to navigate the development landscape with confidence.
Dr. Hassan is a political economist and the Head of the Governance and Politics Cluster at BIGD. His research focuses on political development, state-business relations, urban and local governance, and justice sector and human rights in South Asia, Pacific region and North Africa.
Dr. Hasan has a PhD in Development Studies from the University of London and an MA in Urban Studies and Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA. He teaches courses including: Politics, Political Economy and Government in Bangladesh Governance and Development and the Right Based Approach to Development.
DR. MIRZA M HASSAN Political Economist and Head, Governance and Politics Cluster,
BIGD, Brac University
DR. NARAYAN C. DAS Development Economist and
Sr. Research Fellow, BIGD, Brac University
Dr. Narayan C. Das is a development economist and Senior Research Fellow and the Head of the Economic Growth Cluster at BIGD. His research focuses on poverty, quantitative analysis of development policies, impact assessment of social programs, and labour markets. He has a PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Das teaches courses such as Statistics and Computer Skills Development and Monitoring and Evaluation of Development Programs.
DR. NIAZ AHMED KHAN Senior Academic Advisor and Coordinator,
BIGD, Brac University
Dr. Khan is a Professor and former Chairman of the Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka and Senior Academic Advisor and Coordinator, BIGD, Brac University. His areas of interest include rural and community development, urban/local governance and decentralization, social/policy dynamics of environmental management, community based natural resource management, ethnic minorities’ rights, and poverty reduction. Dr. Khan holds a PhD from the University of Wales, UK. He teaches courses such as Monitoring and Evaluation , Research Methods and Concepts, and Sustainable Livelihood.
CURRICULUM
True to our pledge to focus on a multidisciplinary approach, MDS starts with building the foundation on the basic disciplines most relevant to development—economics, sociology and anthropology, and political science—through three compulsory foundation courses.
The next set of compulsory courses form the core of the program on the predominant development issues such as poverty, gender, global dimensions of development, and monitoring and evaluation. The core courses are specially designed to connect the theories to real-world experience.
Together, the foundation and core courses build a solid and realistic multidisciplinary understanding of development among the students.
MDS FACULTY
MDS has a diverse pool of highly-qualified faculty members, both from the academia and the world of practice. Our in-house faculty members have advanced training from some of the finest universities in the world. Our guest faculties are usually the leading experts in their respective fields.
The final set of compulsory courses concentrate on research—research methods, analytical skills, research design and proposal writing skills—so that the students are capable of using learning and evidence for improving development effectiveness on a continuous basis.
The students are also offered the opportunity to pursue their interest by choosing elective courses from a wide variety of courses such as Development Informatics, NGOs and Social Entrepreneurship, and Environment and Development.
Finally, the students are provided with the opportunity to write a thesis, based on an original research. We follow a rigorous process to select, support, and assess the thesis.
