Bangladesh Alumni Foundation (BdAF) Board Members held a fruitful meeting with the North South University (NSU) Board of Trustees at ‘NSU USA Alumni Reunion 2018’ held at Stanford Faculty Club. The event was attended by many NSU alumni living in North America.
Professor Atiqul Islam, Vice Chancellor of North South University, was also present at the event. He appreciated BdAF’s vision to create an equitable access to quality education for the brilliant minds of Bangladesh. With his encouragement, the Board of Trustees pledged to formalize a partnership between BdAF and NSU to launch a scholarship program.
Making Private Universities Financially Accessible in Bangladesh
Private universities being expensive is a mere reality of life due to the large unsubsidized operational cost. Many great schools in the USA are private schools and their tuition is staggering. However, these universities are financially accessible to the deserving students with strong fellowship and scholarship programs run by private sources, including alumni. On the other hand, no such concept exists in Bangladesh though some private schools do their part within limited resources - e.g. North South University spends BDT 13 crore on scholarships but only awarded after admission and perhaps after a few semesters. This doesn’t solve the problem of the barrier to entry because a vast majority of Bangladesh population can’t afford that tuition even for a few semesters. That is only possible with extensive private fellowships/scholarship programs.
Bangladesh Alumni Foundation (BdAF) was established with the objective of addressing this issue.