Research and market-oriented education system needed to cope with 4IR

A significant change in a curriculum focusing on research needs to be amended as well as a market-oriented education system to be introduced to gain sustainable development, experts have stressed for.

Experts and industrialists from different countries including Bangladesh came up with the observation while attending the two-day South Asian Academic Leadership Dialogue 2022 ended with such observations.

Association of Management Development Institutions in South Asia (AMDISA) and Institute of Business Administration (IBA) of Dhaka University arranged the dialogue for the first time in Bangladesh.

Pro-Vice Chancellor of Dhaka University Prof Maksud Kamal and Treasurer of University of Dhaka Professor Mamtaz Uddin Ahmed were present as the chief guests on the respective days.

The agenda of the first day was to initiate dialogue on “Rethinking Business Curriculum in the context of 4IR, Sustainable Development Principles and Global-Economic Shift.”

Members of academia from major South Asian countries, industry-experts from 30 major corporations including Grameenphone, M&S, Edison Group, BdJobs, Berger, GiZ, BAT, Unilever, etc took part in the discussion.

Due to information and technology, the world is changing so fast, said Aminur Rashid, Chairman of Edison Group, adding, “We have to think how to be more creative and how technology can be turned into effect. We have to bring variations to our work. We have to shift to a new curriculum model as well as to focus on research to dominate in the market.”

Rupali Choudhury, Managing Director of Berger Bangladesh, said, “We have not enough data on the market size. So, the approach must be changed and we need to be involved with the trend of the global market.”

On Monday, the second day of the discussion titled “Mapping South Asian Agenda for Academic Collaboration and Leadership in Business Education” was attended by several industry leaders and experts.

Facilitated by Professor Sheikh Morshed Jahan, Chair, South Asian Academic Leadership Dialogue, the programs were presided over by Prof Mohammad A Momen, Director, IBA and President AMDIB and AMDISA.

During delivering his speech, Mohammad A Momen said, “We are going to face some challenges in the future due to the shift of global politics and global warming and industrial revolution.

“We have to make business leaders to fight the challenges and focus on improved curriculum. At the same time, there is a need for a strong collaboration among industry, government and academia,” he added.