Eighteen aspiring academics from different public and private universities attended a research methodology workshop on “Fundamentals of Research: From Pedagogy to Practice” organized by the Foundation for Learning Teaching and Research (FLTR,) in association with University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) held at ULAB premises recently.
Professor Jahirul Haque, vice chancellor, ULAB and Professor Imran Rahman, special advisor to the ULAB Board of Trustees, along with the facilitators inaugurated the workshop on April 11, according to a press release.
The workshop held in two phases (11-13 April) and (19-20 April).
The lead facilitators of the workshop were Prof Syed Saad Andaleeb, former Vice Chancellor of Brac University and the vice chairperson of fLTR; Professor Md Golam Samdani Fakir, vice chancellor, Green University of Bangladesh; Farhat Anwar, professor and director of IBA; Education Specialist Mohammad Tareque Rahman, director of CETL, ULAB.
The closing ceremony of the workshop, hosted by ULAB, was chaired by National Professor Jamilur Reza Choudhury on Sunday.
The chief guest Manzoor Ahmed, Professor Emeritus, Brac University and special guests were Dr Iftekharuzzaman, executive director, TIB; Dr Fahmida Khatun, executive director, CPD; and Dr HM Jahirul Haque, vice chancellor, ULAB.
All the speakers stressed the importance of building research capacity in Bangladesh. They emphasized the need to allocate larger proportion (at least 6%) of GDP, in different stages of education along with making research integral to teaching.
Dr Andaleeb recalled the Prime Minister’s call to do research in academia and use it to facilitate national development.
He expressed his strong support for this new agenda and emphasized the need to build a special class of “Research Universities” with strong graduate programs to focus on national priorities to guide Bangladesh, not only based on GDP and economic attainments, but also on multiple social, political and cultural indexes reflecting holistic, stable and sustained development.
