Brac University (Bangladesh)

Brac University (BracU) is located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It was established in 2001 by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed and is aiming to provide high quality education, which is tailored to the demands of our modern society. The students are imparted with a sense of community and they are encouraged to take responsibility for the society.

With a new Senior Management, Brac University is aspiring to become Bangladesh’s international, student-centric university and a research institution with impact. Ultimately, it will be defined as Bangladesh’s international university, which has been put on the global map. It will provide a student experience that is second to none, leaving no one behind and putting the students’ needs first. It will be recognized for its impactful education and research.

The mission of Brac University is to create and share knowledge, to uphold human values and to promote sustainability. The proclaimed vision is to be “a proud, global institution from Bangladesh” Learn more >>

Centre for Peace and Justice

Brac University’s Centre for Peace and Justice (CPJ) is a multi-disciplinary academic institute, which promotes global peace and social justice through quality education, research, training and advocacy. CPJ is committed to identifying and promoting sustainable and inclusive solutions to a wide range of global concerns and issues, including fragility, conflict and violence. Promoting a just, peaceful and inclusive society through education, training, research and advocacy is the declared vision and mission of the centre.

The objectives of the centre are to promote quality multi-disciplinary education to create human capital towards sustained peace and social justice; to undertake research on peace, fragility, social justice and open society to generate knowledge and empirical evidence; build capacities of practitioners, academics, researchers and trainers; and advocate for reforms towards peace and social justice.

CPJ has just launched the Refugee Studies Unit in Cox’s Bazaar to support the Rohingya humanitarian response as a knowledge partner. CPJ began developing the Refugee Studies Unit (RSU) in 2018 to generate knowledge, understanding and capacities for the intersecting crises of statelessness, displacement and forced migration affecting Bangladesh. As a central element of CPJ’s strategic plan for 2021-2023, it will build a research agenda and focus on four thematic areas: participatory action research, context and situation analysis, research and knowledge repository and higher learning in fragile settings. Learn more >>

BRAC Institute for Governance and Development

The BRAC Institute for Governance and Development (BIGD) creates insights and evidence for more effective policy and practice for better development and governance outcomes, especially for the poor and vulnerable, through on-the-ground, rigorous research and capacity building. By influencing policy and practice using rigorous research and by building fit-for-future capabilities through quality educational programs, BIGD aims to promote innovation and improvement in governance and development processes, leading to a just and prosperous society.

 Solving relevant governance challenges is a key component in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Conversely, the focus of governance improvement should be on making development outcomes efficient, effective, and equitable. BIGD does rigorous, multimethod research through the duel lens of governance and development to address policy problems and implementation challenges.

BIGD’s Response to the COVID-19 Crisis:

Because of COVID-19, there are reasons to worry about the very livelihoods of the poor and vulnerable people. During this unforeseen national crisis, BIGD’s research can provide useful and credible insights to policymakers as well as practitioners such as BRAC on how to control the pandemic effectively while minimizing its socioeconomic impact. Because the pandemic causes a fast-evolving and escalating crisis, BIGD has embarked on the Rapid Research Response (RRR) to COVID-19 with a special focus on the lives and livelihoods of the poor and vulnerable people. Learn more >>

James P Grant – School of Public Health

The BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health (BRAC JPGSPH) was founded in 2004 to address the unmet public health challenges of the Developing World. The School was co-founded by BRAC, icddr,b and Brac University in recognition of the fact that the public health needs of a developing country like Bangladesh require community-based immersive teaching and learning to provide locally innovated research with sustainable solutions. The School is named after James P Grant, former executive director of UNICEF, who dedicated his life to the cause of international development. JPGSPH follows the vision to be the leading global public health institute for the world’s critical health challenges affecting disadvantaged communities.

The School draws from the remarkable public health achievements in Bangladesh; BRAC Health’s nationwide services; the innovative health research of icddr,b; and BRAC International’s programmes in South Asia and Africa. The School offers unparalleled real-life community-centric teaching and learning experiences on critical and emerging global public health challenges. BRAC JPGSPH employs an interdisciplinary integration of education, training, research and advocacy to effectively address diverse health realities affecting disadvantaged communities.

BRAC JPGSPH actively initiated events to acknowledge the public health emergency, COVID-19. The public health emergency related to the virus has led active aggregating and sharing of useful resource materials locally and globally to a wider audience, including Brac University, health organizations, key stakeholders, partners, and networks. Learn more >>

Student’s civic engagement

Brac University’s students are committed to civic engagement. One of Brac University’s undergraduate students, Zamima Islam Sabaa, has been selected as one of 10 awardees of the COV-AID Student Engagement Award. Zamima is an undergraduate student at the Department of Economics and Social Sciences at Brac University. She is the project officer at the Bandhu Foundation of Bangladesh. During the crisis, she provided cooked meals and food for struggling families that have lost their income sources. Zamima felt this was not enough. There is a dire requirement for basic essential commodities in under-stocked hospitals in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Therefore, Zamima and her team came up with the idea of a basic care box, which contains the following commodities:  hand sanitizers, soap, disposable gloves, masks, mosquito repellent (Odomos), vitamin C supplements and dried foods and an instruction manual for the patients. She will use the money she receives from the award to provide care packages for at least 10,000 patients and doctors. Learn more >>

Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs)

Brac University recently ranked GLOBAL TOP 50 for ‘Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1: ‘No poverty’ in Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings 2020. According to THE Impact Rankings Brac University’s performance has been found to be particularly encouraging in delivering the goals in university’s research on poverty and their support for poor students and citizens in the local community. Learn more >>