Feature

Face to face with Dr. M A Taher,
a man with a vision

M A Samad Hemal

ON December 1, 2008, I took an interview of Professor Dr. M A Taher, a reputed Human Resources specialist. Mr. Taher, chairman of the department of Management Studies of Chittagong University, achieved 1st class 1st position in both Honors and Masters degree. He had completed his PHD on Industrial Relation under close supervision of renowned Professor V. L. Alan of Leads University and scholar professor Mozzaffar Ahmed of Dhaka University and Professor Abdul Awal Khan of Chittagong University. He has also completed the MBIM degree.

He was invited to Korea, Canada and Maldives under fellowship program of Samsung HRD centre, COL and AMDISA respectively. He is also a consultant of ILO, UNDP and COL. He is a member of AMDISA of Maldives, IM of UK, and AHRD of USA. In Bangladesh, he is a member of MA and LION. He is also an advisor of B. Meher Memorial Trust, Agrabad Co-Operative Society, Deodighi High School and Babunagar Forkania Madrasha.

While talking about his contribution to the department of education and society, he noted that he has been designing and updating his courses according to the changing business environment. Seminars, workshops and corporate presentations have been arranged in the department by his close supervision. He told me gladly that KAFCO has given a good number of computers and projectors and AC for the computer lab of the department of Management Studies. Recently Professor Sultana Nahar of Ohio University attended a seminar on world food crisis arranged by the department. He has written 8 important books, which has been followed in different universities. He has also written 42 articles, which were published in prestigious journals both nationally and internationally. He also presented 15 papers in different national and international seminars. He has launched an evaluation form for internship of postgraduate students, which will be filled up by the employer. He is also planning to organize a career fair, which will be the first of its kind in the university.

He was involved in politics in his student life. But he believes that it was different than the student politics we now have. According to him, student and teacher politics must be campus based and it should not be a wing of any political party. It should be focused on the betterment of students, teachers and education, or it should be banned!

He is not satisfied with the research facility of the university. He suggested that the budget of research must be at least 20 percent of the whole budget of the university. He is also not satisfied with the teacher's recruitment procedure of the public universities. He suggested that in Bangladesh we follow the IIM Model while recruiting teachers at public universities. In this model the candidates are short-listed and then the short listed candidates are invited for lecture session where Vice Chancellor, Registered and senior faculties of the universities will be present there to evaluate the candidates. After the lecture session, final candidates will be selected as Teachers Assistant.

He gladly informed me that the BBA faculty is going to introduce EMBA very soon. He regretted for not having a TSC in the university, which can help to enhance harmonious relationship between teachers and students.

The student of MBA, Chittagong University