The UCSI University, one of the top-ranked and largest private universities in Malaysia, has launched its first international campus in Bangladesh. Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni and Deputy Minister for Education Mohibul Hassan Chowdhury Nawfel Wednesday inaugurated the university's Bangladesh campus in the capital during a programme at a city hotel. UCSI Pro-Chancellor Tunku Abidin, Malaysian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Haznah Md Hashim, Bangladesh campus Chairman Mollah Waheeduzzaman and Senior Vice-President Ariful Bari Majumder were also present. UCSI was Malaysia's top private university in the QS World University Rankings 2023. Ranked 284, UCSI is classified in the world's top 1 percent. The university presently operates three campuses in Kuala Lumpur, Kuching and Port Dickson. Dipu Moni said the bilateral relations and cooperation will be enhanced between Malaysia and Bangladesh through the opening of the university's campus. "UCSI will ensure higher education of international standards." Haznah Hashim said the historical and friendly relations between the two countries will be further strengthened through the opening of the Bangladesh campus of UCSI. "Through quality education, this university will contribute to the development of Bangladesh and bring success and prosperity." On December 12 last year, the university received approval from the Bangladesh government to open its first branch campus here. Read more: Primary Scholarship results postponed for technical fault, to be published further Wednesday After that, Malaysia's Higher Education Minister Dato Seri Mohd Khaled Nordin inaugurated the soft launching of the Bangladesh campus at a ceremony at the main campus in Kuala Lumpur on February 3. The UCSI University's Bangladesh campus is located in Banani.

The results of the Primary Scholarship Examinations have been postponed due to a technical glitch just a few hours after the results were published on Tuesday. A media release, signed by Primary Education Directorate’s General Director Shah Rezwan Hayat, said this on Tuesday night. Read more: 82,383 students get primary scholarships The release said the results will further be published on Wednesday afternoon and the results will be available on the websites--www.dpe.gov.bd and www.mopme.gov.bd. Earlier on Tuesday noon, State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Zakir Hossain announced that a total of 82,383 students got scholarships across the country in the Primary Scholarship Examination held in 2022.

A student who didn’t appear in the Primary Scholarship Examination held in 2022 got scholarship under the general grade in Kurigram. Sajeeb Ali is a student of Char Gorok Mondol Govt Primary School in Phulbari upazila.  Upazila education office sources said the student filled form for appearing the exam but was absent. His name was found on the list general scholarship recipients’ list after the results were published on Tuesday.  This year, 44 and 37 students received scholarships under the talent pool and general grade respectively in the upazila.  The student, along with two others, did not sit for the examination, said Shafiqul Alam, the acting headmaster of Char Gorok Mondol Govt Primary School.  Ashrafuzzaman,  assistant upazila education officer, said he’s aware of the matter. Read more: Primary scholarship results Tuesday “The headmaster of his school confirmed that he didn’t appear in the test. We will investigate how this happened,” he said.  Shahidul Islam, district primary education officer, said they will investigate the matter if his name is not found in the list sent by the upazila office. 

A total of 82,383 students have got scholarships across the country in the Primary Scholarship Examination held in 2022. State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Zakir Hossain announced the results on Tuesday. Among the students, 33,000 got scholarships under talent pool while 49,383 under general grade. Talent pool scholarships recipients will get Tk 300 per month while recipients under general grade will get Tk 225. Also Read: Primary scholarship results Tuesday Recipients of both grades will get Tk 225 for buying books. The result aspirants will be able to see the results on the websites-www.dpe.gov.bd and www.mopme.gov.bd. Apart from this, the results will be available at the offices of divisional deputy director, district primary education officer and upazila or thana education officer.          

The authorities at Chattogram University on Tuesday asked former and expelled students to leave the dormitories by March 15. The decision was taken in an emergency meeting of the University's Board of Residence, Health and Discipline, said a notice issued by the university administration on Monday night. Read: First-ever research, innovation fair held at CU The authorities also decided to conduct regular operations on the campus area to stop selling and consumption of drugs, said the notice. Legal action will be taken if anyone, who is not a student or has no connection to the institution,is found on the campus after March 15, added the notice.

The results of Primary Scholarship Examinations will be published on Tuesday.  State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Md Zakir Hossain made the announcement at a press conference at the conference room of the ministry in the capital, said a media release, signed by Senior Information Officer Mahbubur Rahman Tuhin on Monday.  Secretary to the ministry Farid Ahmad and Director General of Primary Education Directorate Shah Rezwan Hayat, among others, were present at the conference. The result aspirants will be able to obtain the results on the websites-www.dpe.gov.bd and www.mopme.gov.bd. Apart from this, the results will be available at the offices of divisional deputy director, district primary education officer and upazila or thana education officer. Though the scholarship exams were not held due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, the authorities concerned took the decision to hold the exam last year. As per the decision, 4, 83,759 students, which were 20 percent of the total students who passed in the annual examination of the class-V, sat for the examinations on December 30, 2022. The students answered the questions in four subjects--Bangla, Mathematics, English and Science in the two-hour 100 marks test.   

A daylong fair on research, innovation and publication, first of its kind, was held on the Chittagong University (CU) campus on Monday marking the 84th birth anniversary of Scientist Dr Jamal Nazrul Islam. Dr Nazrul Islam Research Centre for Mathematical and Physical Sciences and Chittagong University Research and Higher Study Society jointly organised the fair styled ‘Chattogram Research Festival’ with the aim to popularise the research culture. Apart from this, the fair aims to present the researches of the university and varieties of researches of all organisations in Chattogram before all. CU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Shireen Akhter inaugurated the fair where Pro VC Prof Benu Kumar Dey, Science Faculty Dean Prof Dr Mohammad Nasim Hasan, Dr Nazrul Islam Research Centre Director and Coordinator of the fair Prof Dr Anjan Kumar Chowdhury and Geography department teacher and member secretary of the fair Prof Dr Alak Pal, among others were present there. Former faculty member of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and ‘Distinguished Professor’ of Brac University Prof Dr Mohammad Kaikobad was the key speaker of the fair.

It is now two weeks since a first year student of the finance and banking department of Islamic University in Kushtia was made to endure a night of unspeakable torture and humiliation. Thanks to her courage and tenacity in filing a formal, written comlaint to the university authorities the very next day, this disturbing incident perpetrated by the university's Chhatra League unit, more specifically the leadership of the women's wing within that unit, couldn't be suppressed.  However the student body can't help but note that even though two weeks have passed since then, there has been no action taken till now against the prime accused:  IU BCL unit vice-president Shanjida Chowdhury Ontora and her cohorts, themselves all BCL activists even if not holding any post including Tabbassum, Israt Jahan Min, Halima Khatun Urmi and Maobiya. This holds true for both the university administration as well as the BCL unit.  Even thirteen days after the night of horror that played out at the Deshratna Sheikh Hasina Hall, authorities had failed to collect CCTV footage of that night from the hall. Many students are not surprised by that. They. allege that the number of ragging and torturing incidents have increased on campus due to the consistent lack of action against the perpetrators,  despite submitting written complaints to the university administration, as the latest victim did. REad: BCL-Torture: Prime accused appears before probe body "A couple of weeks have been passed but no action was taken against accused,"  Bangladesh Chhatra Union IU unit president Emanul Islam Shohan said. The university administration should have taken action against the accused after they had received the complaint from the victim but they did not do that, he added. IU law department Professor M Johurul Islam told UNB that the university administration could have primarily taken action against the accused under the code of conduct of the university. "There was no legal obstacle to taking action against the accused and the university authorities had many ways to take actions in this connection," he added. IU BCL unit president Faisal Siddike Arafat said that they formed a probe body in this connection. They would recommend to the central BCL to take organisational action against Ontora after getting the probe report. Ataur Rahman, father of the victim, said that he brought his daughter to the campus four times as part of the investigation. ‘The health condition of my daughter was not so good,’ he said. When asked about what he will do if she does not get justice, he said that he would lodge a case for legal action in this connection. Professor Reba Mondol, convener of the probe body formed by the university administration on February 15, could not be reached over phone despite repeated attempts for her comments in this regard. Read: VC’s leaked audio clips: IU postpones 3 departments’ recruitment process IU pro-vice-chancellor Professor M Mahbubur Rahman said that they would take stern action against the accused involved in the incident after getting the probe report. On February 12 night, a group of BCL activists led by Ontora and her cohorts including Tabassum went to the victim’s room and reportedly assaulted and tortured her. Ontora, at one stage, forced the victim to get undressed and videoed the incident on her mobile phone. The BCL leader also threatened that she would make the video viral on social media if the victim disclosed the matter to anyone, according to the complainant. The victim lodged a written complaint with the university administration, including the university proctor, student adviser and the hall provost, demanding punishment of those involved in the incident on February 14. A writ petition was also filed by Gazi Mohammad Mohsin, an alumnus of the university and a lawyer, with the High Court on Thursday. Kushtia district administration, meanwhile, formed a three-member inquiry committee, led by additional district magistrate ANM Abujar Gifari, and asked it to submit its report within seven days following a High Court order on February 20. Accused BCL leader Ontara and activist Tabassum left the hall following the High Court order. However they have reportedly apologised to the victim, effectively owning up to their guilt.

The Career Services office (CSO) of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) held a day-long Career Fair for current students and alumni, chorusing the motto “Connect to the Future” on Saturday. The chief guest of the fair, Naser Ezaz Bijoy, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank and President of FICCI said, “People make mistakes during their good times. On the contrary, hard times help people to become more complete.” He advised the students to be prepared to take on all sorts of challenges. Professor Imran Rahman, ULAB Vice-Chancellor, also delivered his remarks at the event. Read: With an eye to the future, 7th Bangladesh School of Internet Governance ends Jamal Uddin Jamy, Director of Carrier Services, ULAB said, “The objective of organizing such an event was to ensure a scope of corporate jobs for the graduates of ULAB as well as give them an insight about the country's top organizations.” After the Inaugural Ceremony, a panel discussion on “What will it take to shape the workforce of the future”, a workshop on resume writing and a training session on Communication and Negotiation Skills took place. The workshop and training sessions were facilitated by Niaz Ahmed, CEO of Corporate Ask and Ejazur Rahman, Managing Director of Mind Mapper, respectively. A total of 64 multinational and national companies and organizations including Grameenphone, Standard Chartered Bank, Dhaka Bank, Marico, Lanka Bangla Finance and others participated in the career fair. The participating companies also collected a large number of CVs from potential candidates.

The three-day Bangladesh School of Internet Governance (bdSIG) 2023 drew to a close in the capital on Saturday. The seventh edition of the fellowship programme brought together 61 fellows – youth and professionals from the private sector, government, academia, civil society, and media – to help them shape the future of the internet by bridging the gap between technology and policy. The bdSIG, a community development initiative of the Bangladesh Internet Governance Forum (BIGF), began at the Daffodil International University (DIU) in Dhaka's Savar on Thursday with sessions on emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, the internet of things, big data, AR, and VR. DIU lecturers Arid Hasan conducted the session "Artificial Intelligence in Natural Language Processing," Musabbir Hasan "Data Science," and Assistant Professor Apurba Ghosh ran the session "Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Technology." DIU Vice-Chancellor Professor M Lutfar Rahman, AHM Bazlur Rahman, founder of the BIGF, and Mohammad Abdul Haque Anu, founder and secretary general of the forum, spoke at the final session of the day. On Friday, at the YWCA Guest House and Training Center in Mohammadpur, Bazlur, also CEO of the Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Community, gave the fellows presentations about key internet issues, including the internet ecosystem; political, legal, economic, sociocultural, and technical dimensions of internet governance as well the local point of intersection of internet governance and Sustainable Development Goals. He also had interactive conversations about the key actors in internet governance, digital infrastructure and adoption, digital rights, human rights, digital economy, digital divide, and geopolitical positioning. Rezaul Islam, quality assurance manager of the BGD-eGOV CIRT, talked about cybersecurity and Bangladesh's preparedness. Mamunur Rashid, consultant at the Enhancement of Bangla Language, conducted the session "Bangla Language in the Digital World." Also, Anu discussed the activities of the BIGF and its communities, including the Bangladesh Women IGF, Bangladesh Youth IGF, and Bangladesh Kid's IGF.