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The Master of Development Studies (MDS) program at Brac University is designed to cultivate highly effective leaders and skilled professionals, equipping them with the necessary tools and knowledge to address and overcome the complex development challenges of the 21st century.

About the Program

Master 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.

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.

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.

MDS at BIGD

Why BIGD?

BIGD, has a strategic connection with BRAC, the world’s largest NGO known for its trailblazing role in generating development innovations that work at the global scale. BIGD 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.

Why You?

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 careers. 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.

After You Graduate

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 organizations, as well as governments and the private sector.