Professor Dr Niaz Ahmed Khan is set to be appointed as the 30th vice-chancellor (VC) of Dhaka University (DU).
President Mohammed Shahabuddin – also the university chancellor – has given his consent in this regard, say insider sources, adding that the Ministry of Education will issue an official notification in this regard soon.
The appointment will take place according to Article 11 (2) of the Dhaka University Order, 1973.
A former chairman of the Department of Development Studies at DU, Prof Niaz Ahmed Khan has been serving as the pro vice-chancellor of Independent University, Bangladesh.
Prof Niaz is a senior academic adviser of National Defence College (NDC), senior academic adviser of BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), and chairman of Bangladesh Tropical Forest Conservation Foundation (Arannayk Foundation).
He was born in the Chattogram district, pursued higher education in the University of Oxford, University of Wales Swansea and Asian Institute of Technology. His career reflects a rich blend of academic and practicing development management experiences gained in Bangladesh, Thailand and the UK.
Besides, he is serving as Bangladesh Country Representative of IUCN – the International Union for Conservation of Nature – the world’s largest environmental network organisation.
Apart from this, Prof Niaz was senior programme coordinator of UNDP-Bangladesh, Forest and Natural Resource Management Specialist (RETA 5900) of Asian Development Bank (ADB), South Asian fellow of Queen Elizabeth House of the Oxford University, distinguished visiting researcher of The American University in Cairo, Manager (Operations) of Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) and distinguished visiting professor of Asian University for Women (AUW).
He has published prolifically (more than 170 refereed publications including some 45 in Web of Science and/or Scopus indexed journals) on such broad fields as environment, natural resource management, and social/community development.
Prof Niaz regularly contributes to high panel government and civil society committees and boards, and acts as a resource person and academic adviser to key national military and civil service training institutions.
