Doctorate of Philosophy

Faculty: Centre for Higher Studies and Research (CHSR)

Department: Centre for Higher Studies & Research (CHSR)

Program: Doctorate of Philosophy

Course Outline

General Information
• PhD offered by CHSR, BUP.
• Regulated under “BUP PhD Rules–2025”.
• Degree awarded upon successful completion of coursework (if required), research work, and successful defense of the thesis.

Academic Qualifications
• MPhil or equivalent research-based master’s degree required.
• Minimum GPA: 4.00 (SSC & HSC); CGPA: 3.25 (Arts/Social Science) & 3.75 (Science).
• Marks: 50% (Arts) & 60% (Science) for non-GPA systems.
Foreign degrees require equivalence approval.
• candidates with Standard  research proposals may be considered for direct PhD admission upon approval of the Selection Board.

Research Synopsis
• Must contribute to original and high-impact research.
• Should align with national and global research priorities.
• Must demonstrate theoretical contribution, methodological rigor, and practical applicability.
• Language: British or American English (other languages require CHSR approval).

Admission Procedure
• Announced 2 times a year.
• Detailed research synopsis mandatory with application.
• Selection involves academic record review, viva presentation, and proposal defense.
• Final selection based on Selection Board recommendation and Academic Council approval.

Program Duration
• Minimum duration: 3 years
• Fee structure as per CHSR policy.

Examination
• Minimum 60% marks required to pass coursework.
• 70% attendance mandatory during coursework.
• Comprehensive viva required prior to commencement of thesis work.

Seminars
• 1st Seminar: Proposal Defense.
• 2nd Seminar: Progress Presentation.
• 3rd Seminar: Pre-defense.
• Similarity ≤ 20%, AI index ≤ 7%.
• Grading: Excellent / Very Good / Good / Not Satisfactory.
• Minimum 8-month gap required between seminars.

Publication Requirement
• At least two articles in peer-reviewed or reputed journals (one must be in an indexed journal) before Pre-defense.

 

Supervision
• Supervisors must hold a PhD (or equivalent in medical fields).
• At least Associate Professor .
• Minimum 5 years postgraduate teaching or 10 years research experience.
• Co-supervisor encouraged for interdisciplinary research

For admission to the PhD Program, candidates must have the following qualifications: 

(1)  The candidates having MPhil can apply directly for the PhD Programme provided he/she fulfills the required academic qualifications, experience, and standard publications.

(2)  The candidate must have 3/4-year’s Honors Graduation and 2/1-year’s Masters Degree. 

(3)  Candidates must have a minimum GPA of 4.00 out of GPA 5.00 in SSC/equivalent and HSC/equivalent examinations or a minimum of 55% marks for students who passed in other than GPA system of examinations.

(4)  Candidates must have a minimum of CGPA 3.00 out of 4.00 for all subjects (other than science-related subjects) and a minimum of CGPA 3.50 out of 4.00 for science-related subjects in Graduate and Post-graduate programmes. Candidates with an MBBS or BDS degree may apply without a Master’s degree, provided they hold additional qualifications such as MD, FCPS, or MS.

(5)  Candidates must have a minimum of 45% marks for all subjects (other than science-related subjects) and a minimum of 55% marks for science-related subjects in Graduate and Post-graduate programmes who passed in other than the CGPA system of examinations.
(6)  Candidates must have at least 02 research-based publications in the related subjects in peer-reviewed or recognized national or international journals with ISSN/DOI.

(7)  Other than regular students, academics, or researchers, candidates must have at least 5 years of job experience. 

(8)  Candidates undergoing MPhil in BUP may enroll for PhD provided they have submitted their MPhil thesis for final defense. Further, a candidate from MPhil may transfer to PhD provided they fulfill the criteria mentioned in para 23.

(9)  Candidates with academic certificates from any foreign university must apply to the Equivalence Committee for necessary equivalence.

(10)  Interested foreign applicants may apply for admission to the PhD programme in compliance with the given admission procedure of BUP. They must meet the same academic qualifications and possess the same professional expertise as required for local applicants, including academic results, relevant experience, and research publications. All academic degrees obtained from foreign institutions must be submitted to the Equivalence Committee of BUP for necessary evaluation and approval prior to the admission and registration process. Detailed instructions will be given for the foreign applicants. 

(11)  The qualifications mentioned above may be relaxed for candidates with adequate experience in the relevant field and a standard research proposal.

Major Fields/Areas of Research

3. The major fields/areas of research include, but are not limited to, the following:

(1)  Management, Accounting, Finance & Banking, Marketing, Human Resource Management, Tourism & Hospitality Management, Entrepreneurship, Management Information System, Supply Chain Management.

(2)  English Literature, English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, EFL, Public Administration, Economics, Sociology, Gender Studies, Disaster & Resilience, Development Studies, Islamic Studies, Library & Information Science, Education, Political Science, Philosophy, Psychology, Criminology, Population Science.

(3)  Peace, Conflict & Human Rights, International Relations, Mass Communication & Journalism, Law, Security, Defense Studies, Internal Security Studies. 

(4)  Computer Science & Engineering, Information & Communication Engineering, Environmental Science, Data Science, Cyber Security, Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering.

(5)  Medical Science, Public Health, Food and Nutrition.

(6)  Experimental research/lab-based research may be undertaken. 


4.    The Criteria of the Proposed Research Synopsis

(1)  The researcher should submit a synopsis of the proposed research on any of the above-mentioned fields that they undertake.

(2)  The proposed research should aim to create new, outcome-based, and applied knowledge, thereby adding value to the existing body of knowledge.  It should be able to contribute to the fields of academia, intellectual discourse, and generate new/outcome-based/applied knowledge in related fields of study. However, the research proposal should also fulfill academic considerations, such as originality, justification, context, feasibility, creativity, and impact.

(3)  All writings submitted for the fulfillment of the degree of PhD shall follow either British or American English. However, if the research demands, other languages may be used. In that case, prior consent from CHSR should be taken.

General Guidelines for PhD Program

1.    The duration of PhD program is 03 years out of which 1st year is for coursework and the rest two years are for the thesis i.e., research work.

2.    The candidates selected for admission to the program must be registered by paying the due fees approved by the University authority. The duration of registration will be 5 (five) years. However, this may be extended up to another two years by the approval of the Academic Council on the recommendation of the Supervisor with valid reasons.  In such cases, candidates will have to renew the duration of registration by paying the registration fees and abiding by the conditions imposed by Academic Council.

3.    Candidates are expected to conduct rigorous research for at least two years and submit their thesis after three years from the date of enrolment in the university.

4.    Coursework will be based on the requirements of the research. There may be some common courses for all researchers.

5. The following three Coursework will be conducted by CHSR:

a.    PH7101: Socio-economic and Political History of Bangladesh (1.5 credit hours)
b.    PH7102: Advanced Research Methodology (3 credit hours)
c.    PH7103: Statistical Packages and Advanced Data Analysis (3 credit hours)
d.    PH7104: Elective Course (1.5 credit hours)

6.    The researcher admitted to the PhD program shall be required to complete his/her coursework of 400 marks of which 300 for theoretical and 100 for viva voce by the end of the first year. Each theoretical course shall be of 100 marks and the examination of each course shall be of 4 (four) hours duration.

7.    The whole academic program will be of 42 Credit hours as under:

a.    Part-I

(1)    2x Theoretical subjects 3 Credits each           = 06 Credit hours
(2)    2x Theoretical subjects 1.5 Credits each        = 03 Credit hours

(3)    1x Comprehensive Oral Examination (PH7121)     = 03 Credit hours
Total        =    12 Credit hours

b.    Part-II    

(1)    Thesis                    =    18 Credit hours

(2)    Research Proposal Paper & Seminar  =    03 Credit hours
(3)    Research Advancement Paper & Seminar=     03 Credit hours
(4)    Pre-submission Paper & Seminar=           03 Credit hours
(5)        Defense of Thesis             =    03 Credit hours
        Total        =    30 Credit hours

Submission of Proposal, Research Advancement and Pre-Submission Paper and Related Seminar
 
8.    The researcher must submit three research papers in line with his progress of the research during the whole PhD course. These are Research Proposal Paper, Research Advancement Paper, and Pre-submission Paper. Three seminars have to be conducted before the submission of the final thesis in presence of the Doctoral. The report of seminars has to be sent to the Controller of Examinations by the CHSR within 10 working days after the completion of the seminar. The Doctoral researcher must follow the Seminar guidelines circulated by CHSR. For seminar, two panel members nominated by CHSR will be selected from reputed universities/institutes including BUP. A researcher will be allowed to avail the opportunity to re-appear in a particular seminar to improve the seminar performance result – in case of ‘Not Satisfactory’.

1st Seminar

9.    The researcher must submit the Research Proposal paper to CHSR when he/she is ready. If the research paper passes the similarity index check and scrutiny by CHSR, the researcher will present the research paper in the first seminar. After successful completion of the coursework, the research fellow may present the First Seminar (Proposal Seminar) at the beginning of the second year.

2nd Seminar

10.    On completion of necessary corrections identified in the scrutiny of Proposal paper and first seminar, data collection and data analysis, the research fellow will submit the Research Advancement Paper. If the research paper passes similarity index check and scrutiny by CHSR and panel members, the researcher will present the research paper in the second seminar. The researcher will present his/her progress report through this paper and present it in the 2nd seminar. In this case, CHSR will propose a date for the 2nd seminar to the Controller of Examination mentioning that the researcher has addressed all the observations/ comments/questions of the 1st seminar. The 2nd seminar will take place after the approval of the date by the Controller of Examination. CHSR will then circulate the seminar date by issuing a letter, SMS and email to all and displaying it on notice boards.


3rd Seminar (Pre-Defense)

11.    On completion of necessary corrections identified in the scrutiny of Research Advancement Paper and second seminar, data collection, data analysis and discussions, the research fellow will submit the draft of the final thesis paper to CHSR. If the draft thesis paper passes the similarity index check and scrutiny by CHSR and panel members, the researcher will present the draft thesis in the Pre-defense seminar i.e., 3rd seminar. In this case, CHSR will propose a date for the 3rd seminar (Pre-defense) to the Controller of Examination mentioning that the researcher has addressed all the observations/comments/questions of the 2nd seminar. The 3rd seminar (Pre-defense) will take place after the approval of the date by the Controller of Examination. CHSR will then circulate the seminar date by issuing a letter, SMS and email to all and displaying it on notice boards.

Publications

12.    A PhD researcher must publish at least 2 (two) articles related to his/her field of study in recognized peer-reviewed journal and/or reputed national or international journals with ISSN, during the progress of the research. One such article needs to be submitted to CHSR before the Second seminar and one before the 3rd seminar (Pre-defense).

Thesis
 
13.    For obtaining PhD degree, a researcher shall be required to submit a thesis on his/her research work in accordance with the period allowed.

14.    Progress report of the thesis must be submitted to the supervisor by the researcher every after three months. In turn, the supervisor will report the same to CHSR.

15.    The thesis submitted for the fulfillment of the degree of PhD shall be written in English. The English language used, should be consistent throughout the thesis. In this regard, the researcher needs to follow either style in terms of spelling (American or British). The Roman alphabet may be used unless otherwise required by the discipline.

16.    The thesis shall be an original piece of investigation and a distinct contribution to the advancement of existing knowledge.

17.         Finally, the thesis will be evaluated by the Thesis Examination Committee

 

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