1. We would like to start with a short introduction about yourself and your academic background.
My undergraduate academic journey in Bangladesh began at Jahangirnagar University, where I completed my Bachelor of Science with Honors and Masters in Statistics in 1987. After that, I went to the United States to complete my Master’s in Operations Research at Northeastern University of Boston, Massachusetts. USA. I completed my Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering at the same University. Later, I did my postdoctoral research at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I started my career as a government university teacher in 1988 in Gazipur, serving four years as a Lecturer and Assistant Professor before moving to the United States for my higher education. I started teaching at the Northeastern University of Boston, Massachusetts, business school after completing my studies there. I taught there for two years and moved to Canada for my postdoctoral research. After completing my postdoctoral research, I joined as an Assistant Professor at the University of Windsor in Canada. I served there for over three years. From there, I came to North South University (NSU) back in 2005 and joined there as Associate Professor of the School of Business. That is where I started my journey with private universities, although I have prior experience teaching in public universities. I taught in two public universities in Canada and have experience teaching in a private university in the United States, so you can say I had experience in both environments at home and abroad.
After a few months of joining NSU, I became the career service director and served this role for more than seven years. Soon after becoming the Director of the career department, I became the Director of the BBA program at NSU in 2007 and served two roles simultaneously. I was very instrumental in taking this business school to a higher level which we are proud of these days. I tried to play a significant role in growing and expanding this school, where we had around 3000 students initially, and currently, we have more than 14000 students studying at the School of Business and Economics (SBE). When I joined, there were only 37 faculty members in this school. We currently have approximately 200 full-time and 70 part-time faculty members providing the most refined business education in the country. We are focusing on bringing the North American Curriculum to Bangladesh and transforming our graduates to be accepted by any top institutions worldwide so that we can place them in top-notch organizations in the country and overseas. That makes this University unique and gives it an edge over others. NSU SBE has contributed significantly to society, corporate, the government sector, and overseas. I feel honored that I could contribute to this journey of shaping this institution in a more prominent form. In 2010, I became the Dean of the SBE and served this role for three years.
I had the experience of working as the Executive Director of International and External Affairs at NSU in 2014. In between, I also worked as a Syndicate Member of the University, the highest body committee of the university administration. I also served as the Admission Director of the University for two years. In May of 2014, with the approval of the Chancellor of the University and the President of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, I joined Eastern University as a Pro-vice-chancellor. After serving there for three years, I got the opportunity to serve Primeasia University as the Vice-Chancellor with the approval of the President of the Country. After gaining all these diverse experiences, I returned to NSU again as a Dean of the SBE. We have seven programs in SBE that are currently under my supervision. All the objectives I now have is to shape the future generations of students so that they can get international quality education in these institutions. I am a passionate learner who is always willing to learn and being an academic professional, the prime objective for me is to seek new knowledge. I firmly believe if we do not seek knowledge, we will not be able to do good for society. We can only take our education system to a new height by adapting the global curriculum and standards. With NSU, we want to break the traditional trends and adapt to the global phenomenon, technologies, leadership, and entrepreneurship cultures as Bangladesh is growing significantly in terms of economy, industry, and infrastructure, compared to many other countries in the world.
2. Being involved in the education sector for so many years, how has the education system of our country changed over the last few decades?
As an educationist, providing quality education is something that I will prioritize. I am not a firm believer in the ongoing education system and hope to see significant changes from the bottom pyramid of education starting from primary school. Due to certain practices, our education system is falling behind. Therefore, we cannot convert our graduates into highly demanded individuals who can be a suitable fit for the current global market. The progress of our country will be seriously affected if we cannot prepare our human resources for the upcoming challenges. We are a country of 180 million people where 60% of our population is young individuals who are below 35 years. So, Bangladesh must shape its future and turn its youth into good graduates, and through it, the country will be able to reach a new height and the developed country status that we dream of. Without proper education, you cannot achieve the developed stage of history, which states that any country could not develop itself without becoming civilized, and to become civilized, you need education first. Bangladesh has done a tremendous job in many aspects of development, but the question remains what is it doing for the development of its future generations? If our future generation is not ready to take leadership, who will take this development further? We have to plan to make our future generations educated human resources, which can leave their footprints all across the world and can generate a significant amount of revenue for our nation.
As an academician, I believe we can change how academia operates in the country. There are standard processes existing globally that we have to teach to our students in terms of how we will be able to give all these students the new skills essential for the students and graduates to be comfortable and competitive in the marketplace. The main concern is that we did not give enough emphasis we are supposed to in those areas so far. So, it is not entirely about increasing the budget in the education sector; it is more about focusing on the quality. When we talk about the funding of education, many budgets in our country go for infrastructures like constructing schools, infrastructures, and buildings. Of course, those are essential, and the United Nations standardized that a certain proportion of the entire GDP should be allocated for education. We are giving only 2% of it, but we need to take at least 4%. This has to be emphasized heavily if we take the country into a developed state. This is the first thing you should intensely focus on. The other thing is to focus on our education structure as it is yet to be adequately designed. We do have a mixed education system, where some of these students from very remote corners of the country do not get access to the technology of the schools and other facilities. I would like to see the government providing the best to its children regardless of which corner of the country they reside. The quality of the graduates does not improve overnight. Universities cannot change their foundational knowledge within four years; the focus has to be from the foundational level. The nation’s education should focus on the STEM base, and by that, I am referring to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics should be given high priority. Suppose you can transform a big chunk of your students educated in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, the way the world is heading in advancing the technology phase. In that case, you will see that you are producing very productive human resources from your country, which will be highly valuable in the global market. That way, you will not be sending an uneducated workforce into the international market working at a deficient value who cannot send much revenue for the country and their families. The nation can only go to the next level if you can convert the human resources to the globally acceptable range. The skill gap in our country is heavily visible. We see at the university level that students do not have communication and other essential skills to excel.
On the other hand, there are minimal extracurricular activities for the students to participate in. At NSU, we ensure that the students get involved in various extracurricular and co-curricular activities to prepare for leadership positions. Every youngster should learn to work in a team, and extracurricular activities enable them to do so. The more the young people emphasize teamwork, the more they accomplish. Therefore, collaboration is essential. In Bangladesh, we mostly struggle working in a team environment compared to other countries as this is something our education system does not teach us. The learning systems do not give the facilities to work and participate in a group environment. In our country, we often do not give the students the room to share their opinions. We are not very good receptors in taking others’ opinions; we try to impose things on others. As a compatible individual, one should learn how to value others’ opinions.
3. How do you think the education system can be improved in order to have a more sustainable and error free system?
We need to focus on the actual depth of things instead of misguiding our generations because it gives them a false ego rather than achieving the proper knowledge. We are offering considerable degrees in our country, focusing only on CGPA, thinking everyone has to achieve such excellence, which is a wrong perception. To build a nation, you do not need individuals with high CGPA. We need the right kind of individuals who can take things as a challenge, who are change makers, and who will understand the actual scenarios and work on those. We are producing many certificate holders holding various degrees, but they significantly lack skills. Our aim should be to equip every individual with a skill regardless of its type so that even if someone drops out of education, they can utilize their unique talents because human beings will soon be counted based on their skills, not their certificates. We are focusing more on Golden GPA 5 and students who can only get into the top institutions and saying the institutions are making a difference, which is not the case. The institutions that can influence students’ mindsets and thought processes are still not there in our country. The top institution’s students who do well are due to their families and teachers appropriately guiding them since early childhood. I think that is not an ideal way to pursue education. Instead of arguing about why we have multiple media of institutions like Bangla medium, English medium, Bangla-English medium, Madrasah, and Technical education, we need to ensure that the students learn new skills regardless of their medium of studies. Students must survive in a globalized industry and adapt to the globalized language. Language is an essential skill nowadays that can also help your career. I see many NSU students learning Chinese from Confucius Institute, getting jobs in China, and getting educational opportunities there. The world’s advanced countries teach their students 2-3 different languages and educate them in literature, mathematics, science, history, and liberal arts, making them aware of all the various aspects of knowledge. As Bangladeshis, we must also respect our language and culture while trying to keep up with the global practices. You must think like you are a global individual and interact with everyone from a global perspective. We must create ourselves to have a competitive edge in negotiating things with other people. Bangladeshi people significantly lack negotiation skills as neither schools nor society emphasizes that. Therefore, we fall behind in many aspects due to the lack of negotiating skills.
If we consider our geographical location, we are surrounded by India and close to China, which has a similar kind of youth human resources as we do. So, there is a competitive scenario we have with these two countries regarding placements of our graduates. The United Nations has warned India that 50% of its youth will become unemployable, and the same goes for our country. In the next 5-10 years, the majority of our youth might be unemployed, and the reason they are pointing out this problem is so that we recognize our skill gap. Students should be free to learn about different elements, regardless of their discipline, which is a global practice. Human beings need holistic knowledge, especially in the first degree, making them competent enough to stand out in diversified positions.
Whichever profession you pursue, let it be journalism or business, you need to have fundamental knowledge like being ethical, learning integrity and moral values; otherwise, you cannot contribute to the organization and society regardless of having a certificate or not. We see many organization leaders lacking proper knowledge as they did not unleash their true potential throughout their life journey. You see, humans are super powerful, and every single human being holds enormous potential. Society is responsible for giving them the room to unleash their potential, but in Bangladesh, the situation is quite different. I feel bad when I see the SSC and HSC results, and the celebrations only revolve around the ones who achieved a golden GPA 5. They hardly understand they are ignoring a group of bright minds who might not be able to achieve a golden GPA 5. Human beings and their potential are not limited to only achieving a golden GPA 5. Many successful individuals in our society did not score a golden GPA 5. They succeeded through integrity, devotion, and sincerity in their profession. We are focusing on the whole educational journey based on the result day. Our journalists are writing about the passing ratio of the board exams as if it is the only measurement of academic quality. But the scenario is quite different. The main indicator of quality education is mitigating the deficiency the student has in knowledge and giving him the room to improve further so that at one point, he can go head to head with his peers who have achieved excellent results in the past. But in our society, we do not believe in that; instead, we make them feel like they are not good enough, giving them no room to improve. We judge them based on their results and assume they cannot make any significant achievement in life that is invalid. I would like to tell every single parent to forget the grades and give their children a proper education. Give them all the ingredients they require to develop themselves; that way, you can find what he is genuinely passionate about and where his potential is. Many outstanding athletes in our country might not be very good at academics, but does it make much difference in their achievements? Human beings must be counted based on their potential, and society should give them proper support. But unfortunately, in our country, our system does not support us, nor do our families in most cases, because we have created a negative society that leads us in a negative direction. I genuinely believe that all Bangladeshi children, regardless of where they belong, indeed hold enormous potential. The academic institutions, families, and workplaces should emphasize figuring out one’s interests and inherent capacities and figure out what capabilities an individual has, and based on that; you have to push them in that direction rather than giving them a title. In our country, we heavily emphasize titles. As soon as a student qualifies for the BCS exam, we start to consider them as someone unique, whereas the difference he has from the other students is minor. But we are neglecting the other ones, which is not a good thing at all. In this way, we are highly subsidizing a group of people and leaving others in the dark, not allowing them to contribute to society. A nation cannot grow without the contribution of the majority of its population. I am not against competitive exams; I am just addressing the fact that we might be ignoring a significant portion of our students through this process. Being a part of North South University, I feel delighted that many common graduates are doing beautiful things in society. Many business students have contributed significantly to our economy by creating numerous e-commerce businesses and industries using their innovative ideas. They might not be the toppers in their class, but they have developed excellent opportunities for others. They were not looking for jobs but creating jobs for other people. Do we ask these individuals whether they had achieved a golden GPA 5 in their 10th and 12th grades? We don’t. But we put an enormous number of students in depression at some point in their life for not being able to get a GPA 5 or passing an exam which leaves a negative impression in their minds. The person who stood first in the public exams may not be the topper his entire life. Life is not a sprint race; it is more like a marathon. It is a long journey that is not likely to be smooth. There will be hurdles and darkness, but if you are a person with integrity and devotion, you will see the sunshine and clear sky, and darkness will fade away at one point in your life, and you will stand out as a successful individual. By successful individual, I do not refer to a person with enormous wealth. A successful individual is somebody content with his life and can proudly say that he has contributed to society, no matter how small the contribution is.
4. What are the necessary skills Bangladeshi students need to acquire in order to flourish in the global arena?
I think the entrepreneurial side of the youth is something Bangladesh needs to focus on. We should emphasize the skill development of the youth significantly, which is relevant to the current world. The world has changed tremendously. We cannot simply run our education system as we did in the last 20 years. We must acknowledge how technology has converged. Due to these technological advancements, the world has become smaller. Now it does not matter in which corner of the world you are sitting. We now live in a world where you can create an impact sitting in any corner of the world. The current generation needs a clear insight into this to get enriched and have their confidence back. Our young generation is frustrated and gradually losing their faith due to the lack of support from society, institutions, and their families. Therefore they feel incompetent for the future roles and the jobs they aim for. We need to change the scenario by giving confidence to the young generation. Each year we have 1.5 million students passing the HSC examination. Among this huge number of students, not everyone will be able to make it to the academic institutions that are sole because of our limitations. Currently, we have a total of 350000 seats, including private universities. Therefore, most students go out of mainstream education and move to technical or vocational education. We need to make these students realize they can achieve significant milestones in life if they are genuine knowledge seekers.
As I mentioned earlier, In the current context, we should introduce STEM-based education for our students, primarily focusing on math, science, and technology. Emphasizing technological skills during undergraduate studies can be beneficial in many ways. We have to introduce them to the ICT-based studies, which we have done already, but we do not practically practice it in our schools; we mainly apply it in written formats. We need to train them with computing and programming skills. We must keep them updated with global trends to prepare them for the upcoming challenges. Regardless of your study discipline, you need a firm grasp of technologies. Technology has become an integral part of our lives, and we must use it best. Communication and negotiation skills are two of the most fundamental skills one must acquire, along with specialized skills based on particular professions. You must know the technical know-hows particular to your job. Our current generation of students must heavily focus on skill-based education. The Bangladeshi education system is still far behind in giving students skill-based education because we still follow curriculum-based structures. Most of the time, these courses do not align with real-life scenarios. Therefore we are failing to prepare real-life problem solvers. We do not need to have all sorts of skills. Instead, individuals can flourish if they possess one distinctive characteristic and compatibility in real-life problem-solving. Students must focus on acquiring real-life skills instead of chasing grades to succeed.
5. Considering your vast teaching and research experience in Bangladesh and abroad, what are the changes and developments you have seen over the years?
In light of recent developments, I think the future not only holds exciting opportunities, but also poses serious challenges for the Education sector of the country. The demand for higher education will continue to grow to cope with the changing environment of evolving business and industry due to globalization, technological advancement, demographics, and pressing social demand. Academic institutions need to design the curriculum in line with the latest industry trends, standards, and practices; ever changing research and development, whether in the industry or its related education, is a must and thus it is important that the curriculum at an academic institution keeps updating with the changing environment.
Globally, forward looking institutions are beginning to implement changes to their curricula, strategies, partnerships and associations to face the future challenges of the increasingly competitive education market. Universities need to make sure more participation in non-degree education focusing on skills; flexible learning modules; data-driven customization of learning; laboratories to facilitate experiential learning and educational solutions. Partnerships have to be established between and among the universities to nurture the talents across the nations. Talents are anywhere and everywhere – we need to nourish and facilitate them in order to grow and contribute to society.
Academic institutions need to explore collaborative research projects; explore the possibility of exchanging students, faculty members and research staff; organize joint academic conferences, seminars, lectures and workshops; exchange of academic materials and other information of mutual interests. It is a crucial part for academic institutions to strengthen collaborative research and innovation. Universities and academic institutions need to go beyond the boundaries, set the cross-countries, cross-cultural & virtual collaborations with global partners to enhance the knowledge exchange and knowledge sharing opportunities to create a better world for our future generation.
Over the years we have improved to quite an extent when it comes to education. Most universities are now aligning their courses and curriculums based on Outcome Based Education (OBE). This curriculum primarily emphasizes on ensuring that each student has a clear insight into the course they are enrolled in. But although most universities are adapting to this curriculum, very few assess the actual impact. At NSU, we assess the implications through tests, giving us a clear overview of students’ learning progress. But it is good that we are gradually adapting to global practices.
6. What message would you like to give to the young generations to excel in their goals?
I would like to convey my message to all the young individuals out there to be confident and try to adapt to the dynamic and ever changing world culture through acquiring the essential skills to excel. You need to figure out your strengths and weaknesses along with your unique abilities that make you stand above the crowd. If your passion drives you, you will succeed in the long term. Do not get intimidated by an imposed decision; instead, follow what you are genuinely passionate about. To contribute to society significantly, you must figure out the potentials that you possess. Be confident you will drive in that direction, whatever passion you have. You have to be patient and believe that every individual possesses certain capabilities. It is okay not to be good at everything; you just need to find one thing you are good at and follow that direction. You have to be a knowledge seeker and keep yourself updated with the global perspective through technologies as the power of getting information is now in our hands. Have faith in yourself, and you will become a successful individual in your life who can significantly contribute to society, family, and the greater context of the country. Every young individual must think of expanding their horizons by chasing their passion, and along the way, they must change the sphere of their life journey. Every single individual can shine if they are a fair and just individual who believes in the true path and does not deviate from ethical and moral integrity. Success might reach you a bit late, but you have to keep your patience and continuously strive for it.
