In today’s higher education landscape, internationalisation has been widely accepted as an important strategy for institutional development. The cultivation of students’ intercultural competence has shifted from an added-value side effect to an all-persuasive motive in a market-driven and globalised educational sector. Researchers, educators and administrators would agree that a renewed emphasis on Intercultural Education (IE) is very necessary and important, and it will enhance the outcome of institutional internationalisation efforts.  

Bangladesh’s progress for the last couple of years is a mosaic of solid achievements. The progress is also reflected in remarkable expansion of higher education with the massive increase in the number of universities, institutions and student enrolment. Consequently, it has now become ever more challenging to deal with this rapid expansion and to maintain the quality of higher education. Since the globalised economy provides countless opportunities to our higher education institutions, it should be explored to improve the quality of higher education so as to produce globally competent graduates to lead the country towards further development.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a good option for such exploration as this country is known for its rich cultural heritage. The country has made significant progress in developing its higher education and research system and has been working to attract international students to its five universities namely, King Abdul Aziz University, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Mining, King Saud University, Prince Mohammad bin Fahd University and Imam Abdurrahman Bin Faisal University. It can be mentioned here that the UGC of Bangladesh and a few top ranked universities of KSA had taken an initiative to explore collaboration scopes in higher education, training and research sector. Objective of the MoU is to ensure and enhance the standard of e-governance, quality assurance, leadership, institutional capacity building, administrative and financial management of the universities of both countries with an aim of bringing in qualitative improvement in the governance and management of the universities and the UGC as well. Through this MoU, officials of both countries will get a chance to be more familiar with the global trends of higher education, research and innovation.

The way of interaction, knowledge sharing and holistic approach of teaching and learning will make the programme a viable one; especially there will be paradigm shift in the learning trends. A good number of Saudi Arabian universities are contributing remarkably in teaching, research and innovation. These universities of KSA and the University Grants Commission of Bangladesh (UGC) may together develop one of the supreme training centres for delivering various customised short training courses for professionals.  

Moreover, as we all know that there are a good number of Bangladeshi students and faculties in the KSA universities who are now performing very well in the respective fields. There are plenty of scope of joint collaborations, especially in research and intellectual interchange between these universities and Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has long-standing relations and growing engagements with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Although there is plenty of common links to build on, the strategic importance of Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia is limited. However, both the countries increasingly recognise mutually beneficial potential to expand bilateral cooperation across a wider perspective. In deepening bilateral cooperation in trade, investment and economic front, the 11th session of the Joint Commission of Dhaka agreed to expand cooperation in all areas e.g. manpower, education, trade, investment, health and agriculture. It is time that the cooperation potential in the education sector was now tapped into fully.

Recently, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) has proposed to enter into collaborative arrangement with a few universities in the KSA. King Fahd University of Petroleum and Mineral Resources in Dammam has similarly expressed interest to offer scholarships to scientific officers of Petro Bangla for post-graduate and doctoral degree. In order to reap benefits of such academic collaboration at higher level, Bangladesh has already proposed a MoU related to broader collaboration and cooperation with the higher educational institutes of the KSA.

The five-decade-long diplomatic relationship between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Bangladesh has consistently upheld a longstanding economic and development tie. These two friendly nations have nurtured robust diplomatic ties marked by mutual understanding and deep fraternity. Throughout this journey, our bilateral trade has thrived, reaching approximately USD 2.5 billion in FY2023. As Bangladesh transitions from its Least Developed Country (LDC) status by 2026 and aims to be a developed economy by 2041, it faces the crucial task of extending its footprint in a more vibrant way in the Middle East. Exploring different collaboration scopes with the KSA on many fronts including higher education, training and research could be a good first step to get the ball rolling. Realising its significance, the UGC is ready to facilitate this journey.

______________________________________

The writer is Director, University Grants Commission of Bangladesh. Email: [email protected]