Feature

'Today's students have all the talents to cope with the challenges.'

Interview taken by Dr. Faheem Hasan Shahed

'Sensibly thinking, you'd find it natural that Dhaka University's problems are vast. But its academic and infrastructural achievements have been tremendous over the past few years. In fact, the successes are too many to highlight.' Saying so, Prof. SMA Faiz smilingly leaned back on his chair with the look of a visibly contented Vice Chancellor.

It was a sultry afternoon outside. Grasses and trees groomed with drowsiness. Occasional mild shower threatened to lambast the solitude of the weekend atmosphere. One wouldn't feel like talking at all, especially if he is the vice chancellor who has just returned tired from hectic meetings, hastily offered his Zohor namaaz, yet hasn't had lunch but continuously signing files as well as handling complicated requests from VIP visitors.

But he politely asked for some time to finish everything including his lunch while ordering snacks and tea for me. And then he spoke out from his heart about his university, his community, his endeavours and aspirations.

'You have lived three sequential stages of your career in this campus: studentship, teachership, and now this vice chancellorship. How would you evaluate the growing up of your campus?' I asked. 'Are you personally happy?'

'Well, yes.' Prof. Faiz said. 'Let's look back a bit. In 1921, DU started with 3 faculties, 10 departments, 3 halls, 877 students, and 60 teachers. It was built according to the Oxfordian model, with the exact residential character Oxford still maintains. DU couldn't maintain that after 1947 for obvious reasons. Instead it started giving affiliations to numerous colleges to run additional honors and masters programs. With the passage of time, DU now has 10 faculties, 50 departments, 9 institutes, 17 halls, 32,000 plus students, and 1400 teachers. It is a development, isn't it?'

'But sir, people talk about the lack of quality in research work,' I interrupted a bit.

'I agree Faheem, he said, 'a university's duty cannot be just holding admission exams, starting-finishing classes, keeping students inside halls. There has to be research work that is a vital ingredient of the whole system. And mind it, those research works have to be of international standard. But, we have the constraint of funds! Yes, it's the de facto issue.'

'Isn't adequate fund incorporated in the budget?'

'Okay then, let me tell you. In the sanctioned budget of 143 crore taka for the year 2007-08, only 1.5 percent has been allocated for research work. To be more precise, 82 percent of the money is to be spent after the salary of teachers and staff. The rest 18 percent is for all other expenditures. Out of that 18 percent, 5 percent is for research. This is that 1.5 percent money which I mentioned earlier.'

Pausing a bit, Prof. Faiz continued, 'Understandably, it is difficult to keep going with this money as far as researches are concerned. In theoretical sciences, bio-sciences, and pharmaceutical sciences, you can't simply do research without latest modern equipment, and these equipment are highly expensive. But there's no way out; you have to compulsorily conduct research. Now, even if we procure these instruments, can we give them to each department? No. Thus we have created the Center for Excellence for our Science faculty where we are establishing an ''instrument pool''. It means, all the latest equipment would be kept here for the utilization of teachers and research fellows of all science disciplines.'

Prof. Faiz then named the sophisticated ultramodern equipment which have already been procured for the Center for Excellence. DNA Sequencer (the third one in the country and the first one among all universities), HPPL or High Powered Pulse Laser (the only one in the country so far), Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer, HPLC or High Precision Liquid Chromatography, and GLC or Gas Liquid Chromatography are some of these. 'We have acquired special fund for these from the government and this money is exclusive of that 1.5 percent allocated research fund. A 20-crore taka Japanese aid is also in the pipeline for further development,' he happily mentions.

'We can see this possibility that it would turn out to be a world class laboratory.'

'We shall make it a very modern high profile laboratory, exactly up to the international standard.

'Sure! Another Center for Excellence for Arts and Social Sciences is underway adjacent to TSC. Besides maintaining academic research, this Center would encompass two more things, the much-desired Dhaka University Museum and the Dhaka University Archives.'

'Business Studies is supposedly doing fine; it's a general perception,' I said.

'Yes. In my view, IBA and the Business Studies Faculty are definitely maintaining the international academic standard.'

'Sir, what about the curricula as a whole? And the performance of teachers in general?'

'We have been continuously upgrading the curricula. After the introduction of the semester system, things have certainly come back to the track. Our teachers have been going abroad to top-class universities for higher studies and are coming back to serve the community.'

'Some of them stay back. How to tackle that?' I asked.

'Exceptions are exceptions. Almost all teachers come back. No doubt about that,' he said. 'However, providing them with adequate facilities is the need of the hour. Unless we give them financial benefits to lead decent lives, we can't expect quality service from them. And honestly, we cannot hold them back either. The salary of our teachers is very meager compared to that of private universities. We need to rethink about the entire issue seriously.'

He narrated the example of Pakistan where universities have introduced a 'Tenure Track System' comprising various conditions. Teachers get financial privileges in accordance with their extent of fulfilling those conditions. In such case, a professor's salary goes up to Rs. 1 lakh 50 thousand. 'And, as regards same income-slots, university teachers pay one-third tax of what others pay.' Prof. Faiz said.

A sigh of disappointment somewhat grasped me. When would our teachers have this fortune, I thought! Prof. Faiz probably felt the same. He continued, 'I didn't yet tell you about what they call “compensation package”. Under this package, expatriate teachers are given the right incentive to come back to Pakistan and serve the university. Do you know what that incentive is? Exactly the same salary that they get abroad, but on two conditions. One, they have to produce a certain number of Ph.D.-s during the 5 or 10 years they would stay in their country; two, they'd have to produce sufficient number of research papers.'

'One wonders who'd think for our teachers in this line,' I said.

'We have to! All have to. See, teachers are the ones who keep thinking about the social problems, and it is through their researches that they contribute to the solution of these problems that confront the society. Why shouldn't the government and other regulatory authorities think about their well-being?' asked Prof. Faiz.

We shifted to the issue of quality maintenance in classroom teaching. 'Sir, 75-80 students crowded in a single class, and it's a normal scene,' I said. 'Why does DU need to enroll so many students? Quality, not quantity is what should matter.'

'We believe in being positive,' he smiled a bit. 'No university is a complete one till it has diversity in its disciplines. With the growing demand of time, we have set up diverse departments like Population Sciences, Peace & Conflict Studies, Women Studies, Tourism & Hotel Management, Development Studies etc. Naturally more and more students are being drawn to those. These are talented kids coming from even the remotest areas, and we want to incorporate them as much as possible to insert creativity and knowledge inside them.'

Pausing a bit, he highlighted emphatically, 'If we can boost the infrastructural facilities to a considerable extent, all other problems would become minimized. Library is one sector that needs drastic development. South Korea is helping us introducing automation system in our central library. Other developments are coming step by step.'

Regarding the issue of classroom shortage, Prof. Faiz maintained that the authority had been deeply thinking to solve it. One such action is the construction of the new Social Sciences building beside the mosque. 'You know what, 50 percent rooms of the Arts building will become free,' he said.

'There is this complain about the gradual decline of academic standard….'

'I don't agree,' he asserted. 'In this overtly competitive time, our students are successfully coping with the challenges. They are more talented than what we were in our times. We used to know about this word in the Geography maps, History books. To us, the world was too big. But now? All sorts of latest advancements are straightaway at the threshold of our kids, and see how they are managing everything besides their studies. Our graduates can get into any top university abroad easily; their standards are never doubted.'

'But teachers themselves express their annoyance regarding the popularity of spoon-feeding style of lectures among students; they love to get readymade lecture sheets and hardly read anything beyond exam syllabuses,' I said.

'I agree. The coaching-oriented SSC-HSC education has influenced this mentality. But let me categorically tell you Faheem, eventually it is the inherent merit and analyzing capacity of the student that matters. Knowledge-seeking students shine in their university lives, unlike the spoon-fed ones. Remember, the biggest library in the world or the most learned teacher in the planet won't be able to educate you unless you yourself try to be educated.'

We shifted to a very crucial issue concerning the fee-structure of students. I wanted to know about his opinion regarding a popular view held by the educated class: had students' monthly fee been up to a standard amount, much of financial constraints could have been internally solved.

'Well, the issue has dual facets: on the one hand, should nation pay for the education of the users (students) because after all, it is for the betterment of the nation? Or on the other, the users should pay because as the privileged group their personal growth is attached to it? From the perspective of DU, education has been a public good as far as national interest is involved. Therefore, nation has been paying the cost. But I'd ask all to rethink whether guardians should also contribute something to lessen the burden on the university; at least there can be an amicable compromise between the two lines of thought,' he said.

We inched toward the end of our conversation. I requested him to give a straight-to-the-point advice as a teacher for today's university-goers in general.

'Be honest to yourself,' he sounded firm. 'Keep in mind that as privileged humans, you are getting the chance to be more enlightened than others in the society. Therefore, honor that privilege by maintaining self-honesty.'

Any last word for Star Campus? 'Of course! I read it regularly with interest. Keeping pace with the creativity and uprightness of The Daily Star, this baby magazine is bound to reach the top. And on behalf of Dhaka University, I'd happily extend my whole-hearted cooperation anytime.'

Two academics speak about Star Campus to Mahdin Mahboob

Dr Mumit Khan
Dr Mumit Khan of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Brac University is of the opinion that Star Campus has made a good platform for students of different universities to write about the different activities they are involved in. At first he had the impression that Star Campus was covering more private universities compared to the public ones but later he thought it has attained a more balanced stage with more and more articles about the public institutions.

He appreciated the topics debated in Campus and would like to see more debates in the future. He said that this magazine was bringing different foreign exchange programs and scholarships in front of all the students which were previously limited to only a handful of people.

Dr Khan said Campus had tremendous opportunities and could grow into 'the wikipedia' for Bangladeshi University Students, with databases of all the writers and their articles according to topic. Not everyone is able to write an article, so he proposed for higher participation in the form of online blogs where people could write comments about articles. He really liked the idea when he heard that a Facebook Group about Star Campus had already been opened for that purpose. He also wished Star Campus a very happy First Anniversary.

Prof Firdous Azim
Professor Firdous Azim, Chairperson, Department of English and Humanities, Brac University says that Star Campus has been a wonderful addition to the esteemed daily 'The Daily Star'. She thinks there was no space for undergraduate students to express themselves before the inception of Campus. She also appreciated the way in which the magazine covered a wide range of issues. As a teacher, Dr Azim would like to see more articles on the general political situation to get a view of what the young generation is thinking about the issue. She would like see Campus cover more glamorous issues in the future including music, movies and television because she believes that these are the things that the youth today spend most of their time in! One more addition she would like to see in Campus is a section which would list the forthcoming events in different universities in the coming week. She also wished Star Campus a very happy First Anniversary.