Tahmina
Shafique
For several
years British Council has been working in collaboration with
a number of local and UK based institutions to offer educational
opportunities to students of Bangladesh.
Recent
reports in the press regarding the ban of several local institutions
created concern and confusion among the institutions offering
foreign qualifications in Bangladesh. Many parents and students
were also affected by this sudden decision. The British Council
(BC) took the first step to unfold the mystery by calling an
open house discussion in which the education minister Dr. M.
Osman Farruk was among the participants. The Qualification@UK
fair was BC's next step and this event went on from December
8 to December 12 in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet. The goal was
to search for consensus among institutions offering foreign
qualifications and the State Education Authorities. The fair
also became a strong medium to make the people aware of these
quality institutions of the country, which provide globally
recognised courses and degrees.
Parents
and students exchanged ideas with providers of education services,
school principals and eminent educationists. The fair also introduced
different institutes providing UK based qualifications like
LLB, NCC, CIMA, ACCA, BBA, MBA, BTEC and other diplomas. BC
conducts all the required examinations that confer such qualifications.
The fair
included programming contests, debates and an exclusive ending
with a colourful cultural event. Fifteen institutions were short-listed
as It and non-IT institutions. The following is a brief detail
of some of the participant institutions.
Edexcel
International and BTEC: BTEC, launched recently in
the country with Edexcel provides vocational qualifications,
including the higher National Diploma (HND) which can best be
defined as 'real life qualifications' providing students those
special requirements which are needed in this particular field.
These unique courses enable employers to keep abreast of the
latest industry practices and achieve greater goals. BTEC provides
various other courses through distinguished institutes.
Shanto-Marium
University of Creative technology’s basic objective
is to promote techno-based and cultural education to the general
public at affordable prices. It provides degree courses in Fashion
Design, Product Design, Fine Arts, Management, English, Computing
and General Studies and many more. All these courses are provided
through Edexcel International UK.
Daffodil
Institute of IT is one of the largest It education
and training providers in Bangladesh with six campuses in different
cities. Daffodil Institute provides a wide range of efficient
degree courses related to IT.
It has been
providing training courses and corporate training. Furthermore
it has also been developing IT literates to make the country's
economical base stronger.
British
School of Law provides law degrees from the UK. The principal
of this institute Tufailur Rahman, Barrister at law, has, along
side his profession, maintained an extensive teaching career.
The rest of the teachers’ panel consists of a group of young
and experienced and tested Barristers. To the students, the
institute provides regular debating session, court visits, lectures
from successful lawyers and judges and much more. It is also
negotiating with the University of London to offer the Diploma
in law course, which will allow successful students to get direct
admission in the second year of law under the University of
London. The British School of Law prepares Law students for
the University of London and University of Wolverhampton.
Asian
Centre of Management and Information Technology (ACMIT)provides
education in management and information technology locally,
enabling the students to be qualified globally. Students enrolled
in the ACMIT degree programmes have the option to transfer,
at any point of time, to another campus with full credit transfer.
These credits are potentially transferable to any accredited
College/University in the United States, Canada and the United
Kingdom. Furthermore, ACMIT offers various courses which include
Professional Graduate Diploma in computer information system,
Advanced Diploma in Business Administration, BA (HONS) in Electronic
Business, BABS and much more.
Neural
Institute of Management and Information Technology
provides high quality computer Education B.Sc. (Hons) in Computer
Science (CIS) under the joint programme of NCC Education, UK
and London Metropolitan University. It has also launched MSc
in Strategic Business IT (Masters Degree) under the joint programme
of NCC and University of Portsmouth, UK. Furthermore, this institution
provides Cambridge skills awards in It and Cambridge Career
award in ICT, It training courses such as MCP, MCSE, MCSD, MCDBA,
Java, SQL Server, web development and much more. Thus Neural
provides, to the local students, quality education that is equivalent
to the education provided by renowned overseas universities
while at the same time, greatly reducing the expenses of staying
and studying abroad.
Deputy
Minister for Education Ehsanul Haque Milon cutting the ribbon
to inaugurate the fair
School
of Accounting and Finance Studies (SAFS) offers ACCA courses,
diplomas and other quality services. The Association of Chartered
Certified Accountancy (ACCA) is the largest, fast growing accountancy
body in the world.
Dhaka Centre
of Law and Economics (DCLE) is a part of the University of London’s
external programme. It offers courses like LL.B (Honors), BSC.
Business (Hons), Bsc Economics, Law management.
The most
attractive course offered by the DCLE is by far the foundation
course (one year) that enables 'qualified' students to directly
enroll themselves in undergraduate courses after completing
SSC or O' levels. Like the British School of Law, the teachers'
panel of DCLE also includes some renowned lawyers of the country
and intellectual group of faculty.
Bhuiyan
Institute of IT, (BIIT) provides NCC courses, Edexcel
Examinations courses (A’ and O’ levels), BTEC, ND and HND programmes.
This institute again includes efficient and experienced group
of faculties and provides a wide range of courses.
Many other
efficient IT and non-It stalls such as IBCS-Primax LTD, Soft-ED
LTD, SRGB-AEC centre for Business Studies, Newcastle Law Academy
etc. who provide quality education also participated in the
fair.
The event
included an extensive British Parliamentary style debate competition
in which the students from some of the institutes took part.
The winners received tickets for a trip to Bangkok. The prize
for a programming contest for the students of IT institutions
was as trip to Malaysia.
This exclusive
event ended on December 9 at the British Council Auditorium
with an elegant cultural show organised by the local institutions
from the fair. This colourful event included Bangla Chorus songs,
Rabindra Sangeet, a fashion show, solo English songs and much
more. The whole event was held in Chittagong on December 10
and in Sylhet on December 12.
Tahmina
Shafique is an editorial assistant and writer at the Society
for Environment and Human Development (SEHD).
