Arch. History
Architecture Discipline, Khulna University (ArchKU) is one of the first four pioneering disciplines that
started its academic doings in 1991, as Khulna University – a globally ranked university, began its
academic journey three decades ago. It was the second educational entity to offer a five-year Bachelor of
Architecture (B.Arch.) program in Bangladesh and the first to do so outside Dhaka. It was also the first to
offer architectural education in a general public university. It began with the efforts of a small group of
young, dedicated, and bright academics’ who initially took the challenge to develop a unique curriculum
for the program. Some novel approaches were assumed for the drafting of this curriculum to make it
contextual and international at the same time. Courses like Aesthetics, Architecture of Bengal,
Environmental Design, Ecology, Computer-Aided Design (CAD), etc. were offered first in Bangladesh,
which many other architecture programs later adopted. In addition, provision for full-time faculties with a
Civil Engineering background was created in the organogram to facilitate cross-disciplinary exchange and
innovation. To quote the first Head of the Discipline, “Architecture education amid a multifarious
academic and research atmosphere like Khulna University offers students a broad-based context to
nurture their talent”. The first curriculum, with its strong interdisciplinary ties, laid the foundation for
strong context-sensitivity, inspiring critical knowledge accumulation and creative works. It transpired the
philosophical underpinning for all later curricula, including this recent one.
ArchKU dreams of becoming a global center of excellence in architectural education, conducting
graduate programs and research in architecture and along/across its allied streams. In fostering
professional knowledge and producing professionals, ArchKU maintains the right balance between
theory, research, and practice, both local and global. Focus is given to need-based and performance-based
processes and products involving expertise from various allied fields, but without compromising the
fundamental nature of a collective art form. From the very onset, ArchKU faculty and staff have been
working as a team and setting the benchmark for excellence for its students and Khulna University as a
whole. ArchKU thrives in adopting state-of-the-art teaching methods, routinely updating them, and
encouraging the faculty for continuous research/publication, training, and exposure to professional
practices.
ArchKU aspires to create leaders and team players with lifelong learning abilities. It also aims to instil a
high level of analytic capacity into its graduates so that they can bring out their best in any context with
originality in thinking, designing, and making a sustainable built environment. Beginning with its first
batch of graduates in 1996 having commendable academic and professional competence, ArchKU left a
lasting impression on the architectural academia and practice in Bangladesh. Outstanding ArchKU
graduates serve the professional arena worldwide, frequently winning national and international design
recognitions and holding influential academic and research positions in HEIs at home and abroad. Many
of them have excelled in allied but diverse professional paths, which include but are not limited to urban
design and planning, archaeology, geography, sustainable development, research, computation and
visualization, project management, public service and policy making, photography, and graphic design,
and social activism.
Beginning with a ‘Semester system’, the B.Arch. program switched to the ‘Course-Credit system’ to keep
in line with international standards and give more flexibility and opportunity to students’ academic
pursuits. As one of the few professionally accredited B.Arch. programs in Bangladesh, ArchKU, through
its curriculum, maintains strict compliance with IAB Accreditation Standards and the UIA Charter. The
Course Alignment Matrix (Appendix 1) details ArchKU curricula’s adherence to the requirements of
these accreditation bodies by highlighting 05 fundamental specialization streams of architectural
education.
ArchKU maintains a culture of inviting external experts (academics and professionals), especially during
the design jury process, to critically appraise and highlight the significance of peer process and alternative
perspectives in knowledge accumulation and creation. ArchKU has always been earnest in converging
academia with practice. Keeping Design Studio at the heart of the B.Arch. program, provisions for
supporting field-oriented sessional courses have been created in all years/semesters. The program also
emphasizes learning by doing. Through this process, students become aware of ground realities. They can
continually learn about the importance of socio-cultural, technological, and environmental needs,
enabling them to understand contextuality and devise sustainability.
Complying with global standards, ArchKU maintains a manageable annual student intake through a
rigorous screening process to ensure intake quality. This strive for quality and excellence has become a
hallmark of ArchKU. It will also be further benefitted by the newly implemented Undergraduate
Ordinance 2022 of Khulna University. Further elaboration and explanations of this ordinance, in the form
of a program execution manual, has also been included in Appendix 2. ArchKU offers various resources,
including libraries, labs and ICT facilities, organizes term-wise lectures and seminars, and hosts informal
learning events, dialogues, and workshops with national and international communities and professionals.
