Bangladesh academic eyes ties with Turkish universities

By Sorwar Alam

ANKARA (AA) - Bangladeshi and Turkish universities have tremendous potential to develop cooperation and collaboration in various fields, said a top academic from Bangladesh.

Professor M Wahiduzzaman, vice-chancellor of Noakhali Science and Technology University (NSTU), told Anadolu Agency that Turkish universities have a deep history and technological development that his university can benefit from.

"These universities can help us by sharing their experience and technical support," he said, explaining NSTU’s highly ambitious project to build a marine science and marine resource management institute on roughly 400 acres of land.

The project also includes academic research in delta plan formulation and the space exploration sector as well as on ecology, robotics and mechatronics. It also aims to build a two-story space research center and a greenhouse research center in the coastal area of Noakhali in southeastern Bangladesh to amplify the quality of research at NSTU.

The acquisition of three acres of land for building a marine station in the near future is one of the university’s main plans, Wahiduzzaman said. There will be jetty infrastructure, a hatchery and mini pond complexes on the seashore as the university has set a goal of purchasing a deep-sea research vessel and a coastal research ship.

He pointed out that the part of southern Bangladesh in which NSTU is located is a vibrant delta, as the Bay of Bengal has a great number of marine resources to be explored.

Wahiduzzaman said he is hopeful that the government will approve and finance the multi-million dollar project even though NSTU is a relatively new university.

He highlighted that the government under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has a target to transform Bangladesh into a middle income country by 2021 and a developed country by 2041.

"If we want to reach those targets, we have to invest in academic research in these sectors," he added.

Wahiduzzaman was in Ankara as part of a tour of Turkey, where he signed two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) -- one with Istanbul Technical University (ITU) and another with Middle East Technical University (METU).

The MoUs include the exchange of students, lecturers and researchers; collaboration on research and other scientific and educational activities; the exchange of scientific materials and information; and joint research activities.

NSTU is a public university in Noakhali. Founded in 2005, it is the country’s 27th public university and fifth science and technology university.

"We are very much a growing university, but we have a target to go forward with high-quality study," said Wahiduzzaman.

"What we want from Turkey is technical support," he said, adding Turkey's technological development and academic progress were not exposed to Bangladesh.

"I don't have much idea about [academic and research sectors in] Turkey. When we explored Turkey, we found out that there are some sectors where we can cooperate and collaborate.

"For example, we saw that METU has been working on the satellite project and delta formation. We can get training and technical support from them.

"I visited a high-tech park at ITU. They are also working on space technology. We can have cooperation and collaboration in these fields," he added.

As one of the newly established universities in Bangladesh, NSTU is expecting to receive the necessary financial support from the Bangladeshi government.

"But we don't have experience, so they [Turkish universities] can train our experts and researchers as well as give us technical support and guidance for infrastructural development," Wahiduzzaman said.

He also expects his university to be included in a Europe-funded project to be run jointly with Turkish counterparts "so that our students, researchers can gain practical knowledge".

"We can organize study tours and short-period student exchange programs," he added.