Fifty years have passed since our independence and Bangladesh has emerged as a growing economy. The country now educates its young at a large number of universities and colleges. The width and depth of their education can grow exponentially if the pool of past graduates contributes a fraction of their time and experience to the new generation.
In addition to the many eminent intellectuals and entrepreneurs in Bangladesh, we are also seeing a large contingent of non-resident Bangladeshis (NRB) who are retiring after many years of service and/or enterprise internationally. Tapping into this resource of academic and enterprising brainpower can further accelerate the emergence and recognition of Bangladeshi Universities as premier institutions and help its graduates compete in both the domestic and global economy.
Objective: Connect the intellectual power of NRBs to the academic institutions in Bangladesh
Goals: Achieve greater recognition of the Bangladeshi premier institutions. Elevate the competitive edge of their graduates.
Outline of the Proposal
NRBs will form a pool of academics, professionals, and entrepreneurs willing to teach courses in Dhaka and other cities.
Bangladeshi universities (individual or consortium) interested in this resource can set up short courses on topics relevant to their goals or values.
The universities can decide if they will issue course or continuing education credits to the students/participants.
The university/consortium can request speakers or topics of interest and the NRB organizers will invite or facilitate appropriate speakers.
Interested NRB professionals may propose a course and content that they would like to present. These will be shared with the universities, to help them select a topic/speaker.
Incentives/Motivation
For the speakers, the motivation can range from “giving back” to prestige.
For the universities, the motivation can range from expanding the curriculum, exposing the students and professionals to new topics, collaboration between resident faculty and international institutions, facilitate participation in visiting student programs.
The BD students and professionals may be motivated by learning new subjects, enrich their CV, collecting credits for continuing education, to expanding their international contacts.
Current Status
The number of Bangalee expatriate or non-resident Bangalee (NRB) professionals and entrepreneurs around the world is quite significant. Many of these folks are happy to share their abilities and experience with the new generation of students and faculty at the universities in Bangladesh. Their hope is that they can expose the students to a broader array of fields and specialization that might pique their interests as a career path and to stimulate the faculty towards research and publications.
A small group of these NRB professionals have offered to present periodic seminars and, if called upon, to support the universities in their work. Starting in 2022, we have been offering seminar topics and speaker availabilities (virtually or physically in Bangladesh) periodically, from which participating universities have the option to host speakers individually or in a colloquium. The speakers feel their effort can be especially worthwhile if students and faculty from multiple disciplines at the universities or industry are invited to attend. If the speaker permits, these talks may be recorded and shared with Bangalees around the world who are unable to attend because of time zone or other obligations. We hope you will participate in this collaboration.