Prof. Dr. Golam Rahman :
You have been discharging your duty as VC for many years. What is your evaluation about Bangladesh University?
I have served as Vice Chancellor of Khulna University for slightly over four years and at the United International University (UIU) for about four years. Bangladesh University (BU) has now grown solidly in terms of students, graduates, faculty members, and staffs by about three times since its inception in 2001. The university started its journey with a mission of providing quality education at a reasonable cost. This university has, so far, been successful and satisfied with its academic standard and is in continuous touch with the global standard of quality higher education. We have already held one Convocation for over 2500 graduates passed from BU, and the next Convocation will be held soon. Besides, report on feedback taken from time to time indicates that students are quite satisfied with academic standard, performance of the faculties, teachers’ support and overall peaceful environment of the university. Again, teachers of this university are strongly motivated and committed to impart quality education, assisting students in grooming up as professional, and introducing and guiding them to pursue quality education. The Board of Trustees of Bangladesh University is a united body and provides all necessary support to the administration. Our university has earned a good image in the Ministry of Education, University Grant Commission and in the academic arena both at home and abroad.
What’s the plan of your university to contribute in the society?
Bangladesh University prepares its students as knowledgeable, skilled, socially responsible and ethically oriented so that they can perform their duties and responsibilities well and at the same time serve the society. The students are carefully selected for admission on the basis of their excellent academic record, high aptitude and strong motivation to learn. They are transformed into knowledgeable, skilled and globally oriented human resources by the caring of committed faculty members of the University. They are groomed to be leader, value -driven and socially responsive citizens through a variety of co-curricular and extra-curricular programs.
BU offers a wide range of scholarships and tuition fee waiver for the students of Undergraduate and Graduate programs based on academic performance and financial condition. BU also offers special waiver for female students promoting higher education for women and thus, provides education at tertiary level to build up an educated and skilled nation.
BU also organizes various multidimensional cultural events and extra-curricular activities which strengthen students’ leadership, teamwork, knowledge of moral and ethical standards, social knowledge, etc and bring them out of being boxed in a particular setting hinged to a limited set of beliefs and practices with little or no exposure to the larger world. These qualities are greatly necessary for the proper growth of individual as well as the society as a whole.
What’s the main challenge of BU considers?
The world is now a global village. Our goal is to provide world class facilities to the students, staffs and faculty and ensure global competitive environment, which is a big challenge. We are also working to build a world-class sustainable, “green” permanent campus for BU. This is a major challenge as it requires the input from many different stakeholders like the university trustees, students, government regulatory bodies and also the local community.
Tell something about BU: BU believes in creating the future leaders. We, as an educational institution, never compromise when quality of education is concerned.
The university curriculum and syllabuses are progressively revised and adjusted on the basis of their relevance to national needs and the global market demand. To us, education comes first.
The quality of education is maintained in cooperation with the renowned universities overseas. At BU, we have pure physics and mathematics, which are rare in any other private university as such subjects do not attract many students. But we have introduced these subjects for the sake of spreading knowledge. We also do not take in excess number of students to make sure that our students can enjoy a good atmosphere in their classrooms.
BU is blessed to have a very strong faculty. Academic excellence is crucially and largely dependent on the quality of the teachers. We produce graduates who are well taught in the liberal arts. At BU, we teach students to be human beings first. We have a program under which students spend some days in villages. By taking part in such programs, they get the opportunity to know and serve our “motherland in a better way.”
(Prof. Dr. Golam Rahman, Vice-Chancellor, Bangladesh University)
