Course Outline

Master of Arts in Governance and Development (MAGD)

The MAGD program requires 36 credits and can be completed within 2 years under an
open-credit system.
Preparatory Courses (Non-credit)
GOV 101: Basic Course in Computing (non credit)
This course introduces students to the nature and use of computer programs. By the end
of this course, students will be able to perform basic functions such as file management
tasks and operating word processors and spreadsheets.

GOV 102: Principles of Economics (non credit)

This course will serve as an introductory course on current economic trends , and basic
principles and methodologies in which economists approach analytical problems.
Students will be able to use the knowledge from these analyses to form their own
judgements faced in developing nations.

5 Core Courses (15 credits)

GOV 501: Introduction to Governance
This course will serve as an introductory course to acquaint students with concepts of
political science and how they relate to improved governance. It also aims to present
governance concepts, issues and innovations by presenting them in historical, global and
local dimensions.

GOV 502: Economics for Public Leadership

This course will enhance the capacity of participants in analysing econo mic issues;
training civil servants and public policy practitioners on how to identify, understand and
analyse economic issues and to take decisions that can have profound effects on
economic growth, social development, or poverty alleviation.

GOV 503: Strategic Management

The course content will identify and evaluate options for strengthening the performance
of public organizations and managing changes in the public sector.

GOV 504: Lessons in Development

This course provides the analytical knowledge and practical skills to understand
comparative politics and policy worldwide. Students will learn about polities worldwide
– as well as thereby enriching and deepening their understanding of their own nation.
GOV 505: Leading Issues of Governance in Bangladesh
Through this course, an attempt will be made to identify and promote effective,
transparent, accountable, ethical and citizen-friendly governance in the country. This
course will recognize the leading issues that are related to services provided by
government counters, where people line up daily to receive services to which they are
entitled.

Minimum 4 Elective Courses (12 credits)

The Elective Courses are grouped into 5 Clusters:

Cluster A: Global Policy Framework

GOV 601: Environmental Management and Sustainable Development
This course aims at acquainting participants with the environmental challenges at global
as well as local level and how environment and development interact with each other. It
also introduces them to various instruments designed to reconcile potentially c onflicting
concerns for environmental protection and economic development.

GOV 602: Laws of International Governance and Cooperation

This course will address the main players in modern global governance and how they
interact in various policy settings. Case studies and guest lecturers will address a range
of issues in areas of peace, security, economic relations, human rights, and
environment/climate change.

GOV 603: Current Issues in Globalization

This course instils the concept, benefits, limitations and challenges of globalization from
the national perspective. It will outline the process in which the modern world’s
economy is formed from an institutional and chronological perspective .

Cluster B: Enhancing Performance

GOV 610: Budgeting and Management of Public Resources
The aim of the course is to provide an understanding of the government budgetary
process, in particular, the mobilization of local and external resources, the str ucture of
taxation, implications of deficit financing, budgetary control and participatory budgetary
process.
GOV 611: Project Appraisal and Management
The course deals with the issues and principles involved in the identification,
preparation, monitoring, evaluation and management of developmen t projects.

GOV 612: Public Policy Analysis

The aim of the course is to expose participants to the fundamentals of public policy
making, institutions and actors involved in public policy making, the political economy of
public policy making and the role of the private sector and non -state actors in public
policy making.

GOV 613: E-governance & IT

This course will look into the public policy and service delivery challenges emerging from
IT services. Particularly, discussing how information technology increases feedback from
citizens and how bureaucrats can learn to adapt.

Cluster C: Building Partnerships

GOV 620: Public-Private Partnerships
This course is designed to educate participants about the main ideas that PPPs build on,
the challenges involved in implementing these partnerships and to explore key
questions linked to making these partnerships successful.

GOV 621: Negotiations and Conflict Management

The aim of the course is to expose public officials to state-of-the-art, concepts and
techniques of negotiations and conflict management so that they are able to apply those
techniques to real-life situations.

Cluster D: Accountability
GOV 630: Ethics
This course will critically evaluate international development’s fundamental objectives
as well as the prevailing means pursued to those objectives through the prism of
normative reasoning and ethical criteria.

GOV 631: Corruption

By way of taking a dispassionate and diagnostic approach to corruption, the aim of the
course is to help students develop a critical outlook toward corruption.
Cluster E: Inclusive Citizenship & Innovations
GOV 640: Learning from People: Methods and Innovations
This course will introduce students to key concepts, methods and processes of political,
institutional and social participation for sustainable livelihoods .

GOV 641: Gender, Diversity & Governance

The objective of this course is to: (a) introduce the facts and theories about gender
discrimination, with special reference to the process of economic development, (b) to
explain the consequences of gender discrimination for economic development, and (e)
to discuss strategies for ending gender discrimination in the development process.

GOV 642: Human Rights & Social Justice

The aim of this course is to familiarize the students with the basic ideas of the human
rights discourse and to introduce to them the emerging literature on the implications of
adopting a rights-based approach to economic and social development.

Dissertation (9 credits)

The dissertation for MAGD may be a research paper, a policy note or a systematic
review of a selected policy issue. The 9-credit dissertation will be spread out over 3
semesters. In the first semester, students will learn about basic research methods,
learning from evidence, and develop 27 a dissertation proposal. In the second semester,
students will complete a secondary literature review, data collection (if required), and
present preliminary findings to their supervisors. In the last semester, students will
write the dissertation and present to a relevant audience (this will include planning and
arranging the event).