BRAC University and British Council organized a two-day workshop on ‘Developing the quality of teaching in Bangladesh Higher Education’ under the ‘Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL)’ program on 5th and 6th of December at GDLN Centre of BRAC University and British Council respectively. Honorable Chairman of University Grants Commission of Bangladesh, Professor Abdul Mannan was the Chief Guest of the workshop. Honorable Vice Chancellor of BRAC University Dr. Syed Saad Andaleeb delivered the welcome speech in that workshop. Lady Syeda Sarwat Abed, the Director (Current charge) of BRAC University Professional Development Centre (PDC), Professor Golam Samdani Fakir, the Vice Chancellor of Green University and Dr. Monzoor Ahmed, Professor Emeritus, BRAC Institute of Educational Development were among the distinguished participants of the workshop including representatives from UGC and British Council. The workshop also had representations from BRAC Institute of Languages, Institutional Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) and PDC of BRAC University. A number of Directors and Deputy Directors of CETL from public and private universities were also present there. Hank Williams, a British consultant to UGC also joined the workshop through skype. From PDC, Sabrina Syed and Muhammad Foysal Mubarak presented the experience of offering certificate programme for the faculty members of BRAC University and some of the participants of that programme also shared their experience of attending that programme. In the second day of the workshop held in British Council, five faculty members from BRACU participated. They are Farrah Jabeen, Mehetaz Chowdhury and Golam Kader Zilany faculty members from BIL, and Sabrina Syed and Muhammad Foysal Mubarak, faculty members from PDC.
In an effort to revamp the education sector at tertiary level, the 1st follow up workshop of second phase ended with the discussion on the establishment of the CETL network across the participating institutions in order to develop a comprehensive plan which also provided the ground for developing a professional quality framework. The Workshop laid emphasis on the importance of professional faculty development and the need to energize the initiatives that have been taken so far. Moreover, the emphasis was given on the fact that, the CETLs will be able to form a sustainable hub with a standard model for strengthening the technique of teaching and learning techniques widely.