National University vice-chancellor Professor Dr ASM Amanullah has paid a courtesy call on SAARC Secretary-General Ambassador Golam Sarwar. The meeting took place on Thursday (6 August) evening at the SAARC secretariat in the Nepali capital Kathmandu.
The meeting held detailed discussions on expanding higher education, research, teacher-student exchange and academic cooperation between the National University and universities of SAARC member states. Both sides also highlighted SAARC’s importance in strengthening regional cooperation in South Asia.
Both sides noted in the discussion that a key proponent of the SAARC concept was Bangladesh’s proclaimer of independence and valiant freedom fighter, the late President Ziaur Rahman. His far-sighted vision of peace, trust, mutual cooperation and sustainable development among the countries of South Asia laid a firm foundation for the establishment of SAARC.
At the meeting, Professor Dr ASM Amanullah said building effective partnerships between universities to further enrich the fields of knowledge, research and innovation among South Asian countries was the demand of the times. Higher education, he said, was now one of the main foundations of global knowledge exchange, research, technological innovation and skilled human-resource development, and joint initiatives between SAARC universities could play an important role in improving the quality of education.
He added that various reforms were being implemented to transform the National University into an international-standard, research-based and skills-focused institution. If joint research, academic sessions and teacher-student exchange programmes were launched with SAARC universities, students would gain international experience and a new horizon of regional knowledge-based cooperation would open up.
SAARC Secretary-General Ambassador Golam Sarwar praised the National University’s reform and quality-improvement initiatives. He said the SAARC secretariat was ready to provide necessary support to increase joint academic activities, teacher-student exchange and research cooperation among universities of SAARC countries.
He also expressed hope that increased cooperation in South Asia’s higher-education sector would play a positive role in regional development and human-resource development. The meeting also discussed the possibility of signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the National University and the SAARC secretariat in future, along with joint research initiatives, international seminars and skill-development programmes.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report