4. Definition

4.1. Course: A course is a set of lectures on a specific subject to offer in a semester period based on the approved syllabus.

4.2. Course teacher(s): A person or persons assigned responsibility to design, develop and offer courses by the Departmental Academic Committee (AC).

4.3. Semester: An academic year or level is divided into two semesters: semester I and Semester II. Each semester covers twenty four weeks of course instruction including midterm examination, semester final examination and preparation of results.

4.4. Credit: A credit means 1 (one) contact hour per week.

4.5. Contact hour: contact hour means number of hours of 60 minutes (55 Minutes + 5 minutes gap in between for venue change) per week needed to complete a theoretical course of instruction. The practical and laboratory classes of 2 hours duration will be taken as one credit hour. Five working days will be considered as one academic week. One working day may be eight contact hours. However, the faculty may arrange its class routine using required contact hours per day.

4.6. Course Load: A maximum of 24credit hours with not exceeding 16 courses (theory/practical) may be allowed in a semester.

4.7. GPA/CGPA: Means the weighted average of grade points obtained in all the courses undertaken by a student in a semester/all semesters of a study program, calculated on the 4 point scale. The result of an optional course will not be used in GPA/CGPA calculation but it will be shown on the student’s transcript with letter grade. It will be calculated up to two decimal figures and after that fraction of 0.5 or above shall be considered as 1. Suppose CGPA/GPA of a student is 3.5565 will be 3.56.

5. Academic calendar

An academic calendar will be published at the beginning of the semester/session mentioning the academic schedule like date of semester begin, enrollment, mid semester examination, final examinations, and re-enrollment etc. along with the list of national and optional holidays.

6. Course designation and title

6.1. Each course shall be designated by a course identification number referring to the offering Department, level/semester of study and the nature of course (theory/practical). The course identification number shall consist of a departmental code of 2-3 letters, maximum of 5 letters, as prefix followed by three digits. The first digit stands for the level (year) of study (1 to 4). The next two digits commencing with 01 or II shall be used for the courses of semester-I and those commencing with 21 shall be used for the courses of semester-2. An odd course number shall mean the theoretical course whereas an even course numbers the practical course, of particular level and semester.

6.2. The theory and practical courses of same subject matter may share the common title but they shall be considered independent courses with separate numbers for the purpose of evaluation and grading, and GPA/CGPA calculation.

7. Credit requirement and duration of study

7.1. Credit hour: Based on course content and weightage, individual courses will have different credit hour (or simply credit) as defined in clause 4 (3 and 4).

7.2. The total credits required to be earned or fulfilled for obtaining an undergraduate degree at PSTU will be 129 or more depending on the respective Faculty Curricula as approved by the Academic Council for the degree.

7.3. The regular duration of study shall be four academic years (levels) or 8 semesters; and the maximum admissible time limit seven years, beyond which the study will end unsuccessfully.

8. Faculty degree programme

The Faculty shall decide a set of core, collateral and elective courses required for the Faculty degree programme.

8.1. Core courses: The courses generally offered by the Departments of the Faculty and are needed to be taken by the students as compulsory.

8.2. Collateral courses: Those that the Faculty considers as essentially required (compulsory) for the degree programme, but are offered by the Departments of other Faculties. The syllabi of such courses shall be prepared by the ACADEMIC COMMITTEE of the concerned Departments, and may be revised, if necessary, on the basis of the suggestions made by the Faculty which offers the degree and recommends these syllabi to the Academic Council for approval.

8.3. Elective courses: Those that are considered part of the degree requirement. The student shall choose and undertake the instructed number of elective course(s) for the fulfillment of the degree programme.

8.4. Besides, there shall be provision for a student to take some courses from within or outside his/her faculty as optional courses depending on the aptitude and load-bearing ability of the student. For optional courses(s) the student will attend class and seat for the examination but the results of the course(s) shall not be incorporated in GPA though shall be presented in the transcript in grade. Optional courses must be completed in regular eight semesters of four year period counted from the first admission.