Graduate Program

Program Description

Program: MS (Master of Science) in CSE

There are two semesters in the MSc program, Semester A (July-December session) and Semester B (January-June Session). The MS program of CSEDU runs in Open-credit policy and a student must complete 36 credit hours to achieve the MS degree. However, there are two groups in the MS program:

1. Thesis group: students of this group require completing 18 credit course work and a thesis of 18 credits.
2. Project group: students of this group require to complete 30 credit course work along with a 6 credit project work.

A student can take a minimum 6 credit hours and a maximum of 12 credit hours in each semester. However, in case where most of the courses are completed, he/she can take less than 6 credit hours in a semester. Further, a student must earn the degree within 6 semesters while theory courses must be finished in the first three semesters. In that scenario, students can take readmission for submitting the thesis only and his/her marks in the theory courses will remain unchanged.

Degree of Master of Science(MSc) by open credit (credit selection by choice)
Part – I: General

1. Degree Objectives
   1. The Master of Science degree will be offered in two types:
      1. Master of Science by Coursework (MS by Coursework)
      2. Master of Science by Research (MS by Research)
   2. After completing the MS by Coursework degree successfully, an individual is expected to have advanced knowledge and/or professional practice in various technologies or fields of study related to the Computer Science and Engineering.
   3. After completing the MS by Research degree successfully, an individual is expected to have advanced knowledge in a specific or multidisciplinary /interdisciplinary field and higher order skills in research, investigation, analysis and critical evaluation.
2. Enrollment Requirement
   As per rule of the University of Dhaka, mentioned in Admission section.
3. Period of Study: Academic Semesters
   1. The academic program for the Master of Science degree will run on semester basis.
   2. There will be two regular semesters in an academic year of the University. The first regular semester (Semester-A) of an academic year starts on the first day of July. The second regular semester (Semester-B) starts on the first day of January.
   3. A regular semester would be a period of 6 months, for a coursework of both types of degrees, all classroom activities (i.e., class room lectures, class tests, laboratory works, tutorials, and in-course assessments will be held within the first 15 active weeks.
   4. An interested student may apply for admission in any of the regular semesters and if s/he is allowed to get admission s/he has to complete the degree requirements within 6 (six) regular Semesters counting from the semester of his/her admission.
4. Degree Requirement
   1. To be awarded a degree in any of the MSc program, a student will require completing a minimum of 36 credits. The details of minimum requirement for the degree types are described in Part III and Part IV.
5. Course Selection
   1. A student, by his/her own choice, will have to register his/her courses in a semester among the courses offered at that semester for partial fulfilment of degree requirement. However, if there is any prerequisite course for a course offered then those students who have completed the prerequisite course successfully can register to the offered course.
   2. There will be a minimum and a maximum limit of registering courses by a student in a semester. (For details check Part III and Part IV).
   3. In special circumstances, if it deems to the thesis/project supervisor of a student that a course(s) is required by the student for his/her the thesis/project advise and that will be binding for the students.
   4. In special circumstances, if the number of student registered in a course is less than the required minimum number of students in a coursework, the academic committee of the department may cancel the offered course for the semester. In such a case, the students who have registered to the course may choose and register from other available courses.
6. Enrollment and Drop-out of a Student
   1. A student who is admitted to a master program would be considered as a regular student up to next available 6 semesters including the current one. Until completion of his/her degree he /she has to enroll him/herself for each semester. Additionally he/she has to register himself/herself for the required course(s).
   2. A student will be allowed to enroll for the 4th semester only when he/she leaves the residential status of the hall. He/she must show a hall clearance certificate issued by hall provost before starting the enrollment procedure for 4th semester. He/she must not be a resident student after his/her 3rd semester starting from the first enrollment.
   3. A student will be considered as “dropped” automatically, if he/she does not enroll him/herself before completing required minimum credits. An automatic drop-out will occur after one month of the start date of that semester.
   4. If a student is dropped automatically as per article 6.3, s/he may apply for reactivation of his/her admission before the enrollment period for the next semester. The academic committee of the department may accept or reject his/her application for reactivation in the following semester.
7. Evaluation
   1. In each Semester there will be an Examination Committee (referred to as EC). There will be chairman and three members in the EC. One of the members must be from outside the department.
   2. The course teachers, the thesis/project evaluation committee members or any examiners will submit evaluation reports/mark-sheet to the EC.
   3. Two tabulators will tabulate separately all received marks and/or grades obtained by all students of a semester.
   4. After finalizing and signing the tabulation sheets, no information of the tabulation sheets can be altered based on student’s achievements in his/her next semesters. Alternation of marks/grades in a tabulation sheet can be made only if an error is detected and proper channel is maintained.
   5. The EC will submit two copies of the tabulation sheets to the office of the controller of examination of the University for publishing the results.
   6. A student will get a grade sheet from the office of the controller of examination summarizing the grade points and grades obtained for each course and a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) up to the semester.
   7. In computing the CGPA of a student, the tabulators will collect all the academic records of the student from the previous tabulation sheets.
      1. Final Result: CGPA = ?G_iC_i÷?C_i, where, G_i is the grade point obtained in course i and C_i is the corresponding credit. If any student get F grade in his/her thesis/project/any of the courses then his/her result will not be published. A student will be considered as passed if his/her CGPA is at least 2.50 or more.

Part – II: Course Work

8. Course Offering
   1. Upon approval from the academic committee, Chairman of the EC will publish the list of offered courses for the upcoming semester in the departmental notice board, or department website and will ask the students to choose and register his/her courses.
   2. If any student wants to register a course as a retake and it is not available in the list of offered courses, then the student will inform the EC. Based on the requests from the students, the AC will resolve the case.
9. Course Registration, Withdrawal and Cancellation
   1. A student has to show his/her intention to register his/her courses by registering them temporarily by predefined time mentioned by the AC.
   2. During temporary registration period, the corresponding course teachers will advise the students (if any) about the courses.
   3. The EC will provide individual course registration form and related information for each of the offered courses. An entry in this form will be considered to be temporary registration of the student in the mentioned course. (The form is available from the department office).
   4. A student is not allowed to register for any course after the temporary registration period without a prior permission from the departmental academic committee.
   5. A student will confirm his/her courses from temporary registered courses after the first 15 days of a semester.
   6. After the first 15 days of a semester expires, the AC will confirm the course as well as offered courses registration for the courses in the semester.
   7. If the number of students in a course is less than the minimum threshold for a course, the EC will raise the issue to the academic committee for cancelling the course. However, in special circumstances, if it seems necessary, the academic committee may permit to run such a course in that semester
   8. Due to cancellation of an offered course, if there is no other course for a student to fulfil his/her minimum credit requirement in a semester, the academic committee may either withdraw the cancellation or relax the minimum credits restriction for the student for that semester.
10. Performance Evaluation of a Student in Coursework
    1. Marks Distribution in a course: The performance of a student in a course will be evaluated through his participation (or, attendance), incourse assessments (such as assignments, presentations, class tests etc.), incourse examination (minimum 2) and final examination. The distribution of marks for a course would be as follows:

       Item	Mark	Comments
       Attendance (a)	5%
       Presentation / Assignment (p)	10%	Defined by course teacher
       In-course Examination (i)	25%	The average of all exams held (minimum 2)
       Final Examination (f)	60%
       Total, t = a + p + i + f	100%

    2. The course teacher will prepare the question paper for the in-course examination, evaluate the answer scripts and submit the marks for the examination to the EC before the final examination of that course.
    3. The EC will nominate two question setters for a course for the final examination. One of the question setters will be the course teacher of the course. The other question setter will be from the panel of question setters.
    4. Each question setters of a course will submit an independently prepared question paper to the Chairman of EC on or before the exam.
    5. The EC will moderate the question papers received from the question setters and prepare the question for the course final examination.
    6. Two examiners will examine and evaluate each answer script of a course blindly.
    7. After evaluating the answer scripts of a course independently, both examiners will submit the mark sheet of the final examination within due date (as per University rule). Each examiner will submit two copies of the course mark sheet to the chairman of the EC for tabulation and official records. A third copy will be submitted to the controller of examination of Dhaka University.
    8. The EC will take necessary steps to prepare the tabulation sheets for all courses as well as to prepare individual detailed transcript for each student in that semester.
    9. During tabulation of coursework marks, the tabulator will take the average of final marks of two examiners mark (i.e., 60%of the total mark) and then add the previously received internal evaluation marks (i.e.,40% of the total mark) to calculate the total obtained marks by a student in the course.

Part – III: Master of Science by Coursework (MS by Coursework)

11. Eligibility for Admission in MS by Coursework Program:
    Any applicant who has passed the Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) from the department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Dhaka will be eligible for MS by coursework program.
12. Degree Requirement for MS by Coursework:
    To obtain the degree of Master of Science by Coursework, a student has to:
    1. Obtain successful grades for a minimum of 30 credits from the coursework.
    2. Complete and successfully defend a project work of 6 (six) credits.
    3. Bear a minimum CGPA of 2.5.
13. Project Work:
    1. To obtain the MS by Coursework degree from the department, a student must successfully complete a project work of 6 (six) credits. The project work of a student must be well defined, structured and the deliverable of the project must have a positive impact on technologies or society. One of the teachers of the department will supervise the project work.
    2. Project Registration
       1. A student may register his/her project when s/he successfully completes at least 12 credits of theory courses. A student must apply for project registration by submitting a project proposal to the chairman of EC containing project objectives, expected benefits and impacts, expected deliverable and project schedule. The project proposal must be recommended by his/her prospective supervisor for registration.
       2. EC will register only those projects that are approved by the academic committee.
14. Project Evaluation:
    There will be a project Evaluation committee. There will be two internal members and an external member in the committee. A project will be evaluated out of 100 marks. Project defense and project report will be evaluated out of 60 marks and 40 marks respectively.
    1. Steps of Project Evaluation
       1. Project Defense: A student will have to submit the project report (signed by respective supervisor) to the EC. The chairman of project evaluation committee will evaluate the project within 60 marks and submit the marks to the EC as well as Examiner Controller of Dhaka University. The project defence committee can reject the project with proper justification.
       2. Project Report Evaluation: Accepted project report will be sent to two examiners. They will evaluate the project report independently out of 40 marks and submit the mark to the chairman of EC. Average of those two marks will be considered as obtained mark. Any examiner can reject a report by providing proper comments. Considering the rejection report EC will take the final decision.

Part – IV: Master of Science by Research (MS by Research)

15. Eligibility for Admission in MS by Research program:
    1. Any applicant who has passed the Bachelor of Science of computer Science and Engineering, University of Dhaka and obtained CGPA of 3.0 or above will be eligible for MS by Research program.
    2. The academic committee may set further eligibility conditions or relax the conditions.
16. Degree Requirements for Research program:
    To obtain the degree of Master of Science by Research, a student has to:
    1. Obtain successful grades for a minimum of 18 credits from coursework.
    2. Complete and successfully defend his/her 18 credits research work.
    3. Bear a minimum CGPA of 2.5.
17. Research work:
    1. To obtain the MS by Research degree from the department, a student must successfully complete a research on contemporary and future research topics in the fields related to the computer science and engineering or in any interdisciplinary field. The student will have to submit a thesis based on his research containing the closely related researches on the research topic, proposed theories supported by sufficient proofs, results and evidences, and contribution.
    2. Thesis Registration
       1. A student may register his/her thesis if s/he successfully completes at least 12 (Twelve) credits of coursework.
       2. The EC will receive research proposals from the students for registration every semester.
       3. A student will submit thesis research proposal for registration recommended by his/her thesis supervisor to the Chairman of EC.
       4. The academic committee will approve the thesis.
       5. The thesis registration of a student can be cancelled by the academic committee with valid reason.
       6. In case of research proposal cancellation, a student may submit a new research proposal to continue his/her study in the MS program. The academic committee will decide about his/her application for registration.
       7. The student may change the supervisor/research topic with the approval of academic committee.
18. Thesis Evaluation:
    1. Thesis Evaluation Committee: There will be a thesis evaluation committee consisting of two internal members and an external member (expert) in the committee. A thesis will be evaluated out of 100 marks. Thesis defense will be evaluated out of 60 marks and 40 marks, respectively.
    2. Steps for Thesis Evaluation:
       1. Pre-defense: Each student will have to present his/her research work and outcome (signed by respective supervisor) in front of thesis defense committee. This committee will evaluate a thesis as: Accepted/ Accepted with corrections/ Rejected.
       2. Final Defense: Each student must submit his/her accepted or corrected work signed by the supervisor to examination committee within a predefined deadline. Respective thesis evaluation committee will take the defense and evaluate his/her defense out of 60 marks. Thesis evaluation committee can reject a thesis by providing proper justification.
       3. Thesis Blind Review: Those two examiners will evaluate the final thesis independently out of 40 marks. Average of those two marks will be considered. Any examiner can recommend to reject a thesis by providing proper comments. Considering the rejection report EC will take the final decision.
       4. Public Defense: After completing all the evaluations each student must present his/her thesis in front of students and faculty of the department and other external participants. There will be no marks assigned for this public defense. However, final result will not be published until the student completes his/her public defense.