Feature

The Association of Management Development Institutions in South Asia (AMDISA), a SAARC recognized Association of Management Education Development Institutions in South Asia, based in Hyderabad, India is developing an accreditation system called South Asian Quality Assurance System (SAQS) for management institutes in South Asia on lines similar to in the US and Europe. This will help ensure quality standards in management education and create a knowledge corridor in South Asia

At present there are about 2000 management institutes in South Asia. The accreditation system will help these institutes to establish quality criteria on its academic procedures including student selection and faculty development.

As part of the accreditation procedure AMDISA has already conducted pilot projects in three institutes including ICFAI and MDI in Gurgaon, India and Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan in 2006 and recently the accreditation procedure has been completed at the Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research, Mumbai. The last phase of the accreditation procedure of Welingkar included a Peer Review which was done by Professor Abdul Mannan of East West University Bangladesh, Professor V. Panduranga Rao, Vice-Chancellor of ICFA University, Hyderabad, India, Professor Ashok R. Joshi, Director, Indian Institute of Cost and Management Studies Research, Pune, India, and Mr. Dhananjay R. Bansod, Group Chief People Officer, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, India. North South University of Bangladesh has already applied for SAQS accreditation.

As part of the its new drive AMDISA will conduct workshops and faculty development programs in all South Asian Countries. This is expected to ensure collaboration and knowledge exchange between various business schools of the region. Besides, AMDISA will also manage and coordinate research fellow programs funded by the Commonwealth.

Established in 1988 currently AMDISA has 150 institutional membership spread over all SAARC countries. All members are institutions of management development and research.

Star Campus Desk

Last week some Star Campus team members took a peep at The Dhaka Language Club to satisfy their curiosity about the institute. What they found out is given bellow in a nutshell for our readers. It was established in 1995 to impart foreign language courses. The 'club' offers languages such as English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Korean, Russian, Persian, German, Italian, Malay, Swedish and even Bangla for Foreigners, in addition to courses for IELTS, TOEFL, SAT and GMAT. The courses are taught by experienced teachers from both home and abroad, making the institution very effective in its aid to students.

The idea of the academy of languages comes from its Founder Principal and multi-lingual researcher, Masud A Khan, who started the institution with an aim to help students from all backgrounds accommodate to different languages. “We intend to diminish the barriers of languages and the communication gap faced by the professionals and students of our country,” adds Masud. He also believes that Bangladesh is losing valuable foreign currency in spite of exporting huge number of labourers. He thinks that the export of unskilled labourers is the cause behind lower wages for Bangladeshi labourers abroad, and he points out the language barrier as one of the major factors.

The institution also holds national and international seminars on education. There are two membership schemes, life membership and general membership. A course on presentation and News Reading is also available for the 'would be' News Anchors of tomorrow.

Learning new languages broadens one's horizon and not to mention adds to the CV. But at the end of the day, job opportunities increase both at home and abroad. The Dhaka Language Club's two campuses are situated in Banani and Dhanmondi. (E-mail: dlc@bdonline.com. Website: www.dhakalanguageclub.com)