Feature

Quality growth is essential for universities
Says SUB (State University of Bangladesh) VC Prof. Iftekhar Ghani Chowdhury

Mahdin Mahboob

WITH a vision to emerge as a leading university in the South Asian region by providing need-based education to meet the ever-increasing demand for quality professionals at home and abroad, the State University of Bangladesh (SUB) started its journey in mid 2002. The people behind it wanted to build skilled professionals in different fields ready to join the industry. Starting small with undergraduate and graduate majors in the field of Business Administration and Computer Science, the university has today grown to be home to more than 2000 students in its own building in the prime location of Dhanmondi, Dhaka. In an exclusive interview with Star Campus, Professor Iftekhar Ghani Chowdhury, Vice Chancellor of the university, has shared the university's story of growth, its key achievements and its future plans.

Prof. Chowdhury mentioned that the university is an outcome of the passion of two entrepreneurs, Dr A.M Shamim and Dr M Mahbubur Rahman, for expanding into the tertiary sector of education as they faced shortage of qualified professionals in running their health enterprises. They took expert help and had discussions with the academics and the professionals, at home and abroad, to decide on an ideal enterprise they could venture. The outcome was the State University of Bangladesh. The formal permission to launch the university under the Private University Act (Act 34) 1992 of the Government was received in June 2002.

BIMDT, a sister concern of LABAID GROUP, paved the way to what is today known as SUB. The organization had been working in the field of education since 1996 with a vision to develop skilled professionals in the field of Medical Technology and Science. Initially BIMDT Ltd. offered three-year Diploma courses in Health Technology. With its success and growing reputation in imparting custom designed education, BIMDT ventured into the university to promote innovative approaches in nurturing academic and professional skills in people with potential.

Starting with Business Administration and Computer Science, different departments were later added to the repertoire of the university with the target of making a full-fledged institution of higher studies. Health Sciences Department was started in January 2003 with both undergraduate and graduate programs. More departments were added as the university grew over the years. Currently there are 10 departments spread under 3 faculties including Business and Social Science, Health and Computer Science & Engineering.

With the rapid expansion of the university, the stakeholders understood the need for good infrastructure and soon enough, construction of the SUB campus in Dhanmondi started. Dr Chowdhury said that SUB is the first private university to have its own independent campus; the building is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities such as digital and computer labs and on-line surveillance.

Dr Choudhury mentions that the mission of SUB has always been to create human human resources that the market will eagerly embrace once they graduate from the university. This, he explains, is done through the creation of a teaching and learning environment that encourages students to stretch their abilities, both intellectual and physical. A blend of national and international curriculum adapted to the local needs prepares students for the most challenging professions in a cross-cultural environment, he adds.

When asked to name the things that he feels proud of, the VC mentioned the library, which has a rich collection of books and online journals, state of the art laboratory facilities, the modern surveillance system to ensure security and a whole range of different scholarship schemes for meritorious students.

Professor Chowdhury hates to term the different forms of student activities as extra-curricular activities; he says that an ideal university curriculum includes what we commonly term as extra-curricular activities. In order for a student to have complete university education, he must participate in activities like sports, debate, quiz competitions, cultural programmes and things of the sort.

The Vice Chancellor informed that the university encourages the faculty to engage in research and publish their findings in scholastic writings. Two journals are regularly published by the university; the Journal of SUB and SUB Journal of Public Health, Both of which are available in hardcopy and in e-version.

In order to provide education of the highest quality, the university has set up collaborations with world renowned universities including Mahidol University, Bangkok, McMaster University, Canada, Kyrgyz Republic Chui University, Kyrgyztan, ORBIS International Wah Medical College, Pakistan

Tribhuban University, Purbanchal University & Katmandu University, Nepal and Masachussettes University, USA.

Prof. Chowdhury mentioned that he wanted to see the university grow not only in size but in the quality of education it renders. This would be measure in how fast the university's graduates are employed in the industry, both inside and outside the country. This would also be reflected by the number of times the publications brought out by the teachers and students of the university are cited by other papers of the field.

The major achievements of the university, Prof Chowdhury believes has been its controlled growth over the years, in terms of the number of students that have been admitted and maintaining high standards of faculty members across all departments.