Notre Dame University, Bangladesh (NDUB), Debuts in Coming September

An architectural design of the future Notre Dame University, Bangladesh building

The Congregation of Holy Cross, that has been running Notre Dame College in Dhaka since 1949, is opening a university in this college campus from coming September. The same Congregation of Holy Cross runs the world-renowned University of Notre Dame in Indiana, USA. 

The new university, named Notre Dame University, Bangladesh, received the required Bangladesh government approval on April 29, 2013. It will be one of dozens of universities in Bangladesh. It is going to be the first Catholic university in Bangladesh with Father Benjamin Costa, CSC, as its Vice Chancellor.

A Different Type of University

Notre Dame University, Bangladesh, is slated to be a unique university because of its “student-centered, value-based and service-oriented” emphasis. It intends to “teach students not just a livelihood, but how to live in today’s complex world.” It will “not educate just the mind but also help form the heart.” The university’s motto is “The competence to see and the courage to act.” 

The university will temporarily be housed in the buildings of Notre Dame College until the construction of its own multi-storied building in the north-east section of the same college campus. 

A Co-educational University

Although Notre Dame College is only for male students, the new university will be for both male and female students and its medium of instruction will be English.

Each academic year will have three semesters – the Fall Semester (September to Mid-December), Spring Semester (January to March) and Summer Semester (Mid-April to July). The annual admissions will take place only in September. 

Courses

The four-year Degree (Honours) courses will be of two types – the core curriculum courses and the main or major courses. 

In the first year, all students, irrespective of their major courses to be taken in the last three years, will need to take the mandatory core curriculum courses. These courses will include leadership, critical (analytical) thinking, academic methodology, linguistic skills in English, human dignity and rights, and human development. 

The students will also be exposed to Socio-cultural History of Asia, Economics, Basic Sciences (Physics, chemistry, Biology and Mathematics), Inter-Personal Relations and Bangladesh Ethnic Studies.

In addition, students will learn about globalization, common good (good governance) and gender relations. 

The core curriculum is based on the belief that “a well-educated person knows something about everything and everything of something.”

The next three years will be devoted to students’ major subjects “in context of what has been learned in the Core-Curriculum.”

Initially Three Major Degree Programmes

This non-residential university will start with only three Degree (Honours) programmes: Arts (English Language, Philosophy, Economics and Sociology), Business Studies (Accounting, Management, Marketing and Finance), and Law (both Honours and Pass Course). 

The University Website

This university's website is still under construction. In future, more details about this university can be accessed at: Notre DameUniversity, Bangladesh.