The Institutional Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) of Daffodil International University (DIU) has organized an international symposium, naming, ‘International Symposium on the Significance of Regional Cooperation 2021’ to ensure the quality assurance in higher education’ held today on 6 July, 2021, in a virtual platform, followed by three vital parallel sessions. Renowned quality education (QA) practitioners, academicians and government officials of India, Malaysia, Nepal, China, Turkey and host Bangladesh presented 12 Papers in the sessions.

Foreign Minister Dr. A. K. Abdul Momen, MP inaugurated the symposium as the  ‘Chief Guest’ while  Professor Dr. Mesbahuddin Ahmed, Chairman, Bangladesh Accreditation Council (BAC), was present as the ‘Special Guest’.  Dr. Md. Sabur Khan, Chairman, Board of Trustees, Daffodil International University was present as the Chief Patron of the symposium. Professor Dr. SM Mahbub Ul Haque Majumder, Acting Vice Chancellor of DIU chaired the inaugural session and the welcome address was delivered by Professor Dr. A.K.M Fazlul Haque, Symposium Chair & Director of IQAC of DIU.

While addressing the inaugural session Dr. A. K. Abdul Momen said, the Government of Bangladesh is very much aware of the need to develop regional cooperation and relations. The government is already working with regional associations on issues such as higher education, climate change, women’s empowerment, economic development and more. He said that the co-operation’s should be enhanced. The Foreign Minister said such seminars and symposiums would accelerate regional cooperation and bondage in the development of higher education.

Dr. A.k Abdul Momen also said that Bangladesh has entered the developing countries and  Bangladesh is also trying to meet the SDG goals very well. One of the goals of SDGs is quality higher education. To meet this goal, the government has established IQAC in all public and private universities.

The Corona epidemic has changed the world, he said the Covid has changed the education system around the world. Almost all countries have been forced to rely on online education. Daffodil International University is ahead in this regard. They tackled the Covid Challenge very successfully through BLC, Smart Edu, Laptop Program etc.

Professor Dr. Mesbahuddin Ahmed said that economic development in Bangladesh is going very well. Bangladesh is also improving in different social indicators. Now it is high time to look at quality education. All universities of Bangladesh must ensure quality education. He said regional cooperation was also important in this regard.

Professor Dr. Mesbahuddin Ahmedalso said that various regional associations including BIMSTEC, SAARC are involved in tourism, agriculture, climate, etc. but they arenot giving much importance to quality education. Regional cooperation needs to be enhanced to ensure the quality of higher education. Mentioning that there is SAARC University in Delhi, he said that coordination of all universities with this university should be enhanced. He also said, we are now global citizens. We also need to develop our students as global citizens. For this, open branches, study centers, online courses, etc. have to be started in different universities, he added.

Dr. Md. Sabur Khan said that there is no substitute for regional cooperation in ensuring the quality of higher education. For this reason, Daffodil University has been conducting student exchange, faculty exchange, summer program, joint research, etc. activities with different universities of the world from the very beginning. Daffodil University wants to produce students of international standard. Aiming to this, BLC, Smart, Edu, Go Edu, etc. platforms have been created. One Student One Laptop activities are conducted to make the students technically proficient. For these reasons, Daffodil University has taken the significant place in all the rankings of the world, he added.

The symposium was addressed by renowned quality education (QA) practitioners, academicians, government officials where they were discussed on diverse areas of quality education, focusing the cooperation within regional blocks: BIMSTEC, SAARC and associations like AUAP. The inaugural ceremony was live broadcast on the Facebook Page of the University and through Campus TV.