The Professional Development Centre (PDC) at BRAC University (BRACU) celebrated its first certificate awarding ceremony on Thursday, 27 April 2017 recognizing faculty members who successfully completed the Certificate in Higher Education Teaching Programme.
Presenting the keynote speech, Vice Chancellor Professor Syed Saad Andaleeb, PhD, asked the teachers to go for active learning so that instead of saying “so now what” after graduation, students are confident to do whatever they wish to pursue as a profession. He also said that the reward of being an effective teacher can come after many years in the form of a flurry of emails from past students. A faculty member’s attitude and behaviour, positive or negative, stays with a student for a very long time. The Vice-Chancellor pointed out some characteristics of an effective faculty member: to have purpose, high expectation from students, to be enthusiastic and engaging, and to master classroom management skills.
He acknowledged Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, KCMG for his vision for the university, and asked all to strive for higher and higher goals.
Professor Andaleeb later awarded the certificates at the auditorium of the university. Dr Ansar Ahmed, Director of Institutional Effectiveness, gave the welcome speech.
The key objective of the programme was to introduce new teaching techniques and to focus on student-centered learning. There were a total of 61 participants in the training program, of which 45 were present to receive the award. The certificate program drew facilitators and resource persons from both BRAC University and external organisations such as the University Grants Commission of Bangladesh and the Institute of Education and Research of Dhaka University.
In testimony of the effectiveness of PDC, a student named Zaber Mohammad shared his story. He is a CGPA 4 student of the Computer Science department and attributed his success to his teachers who had trained at PDC. In addition to a cultural program, Ms. Adiba Naoshin, Lecturer from BRAC Business School and Dr. Md. Hasanuzzaman Sagor, Assistant Professor from EEE Department reflected on their experience and application of what they learned from PDC.
The Vice-Chancellor indicated that PDC will continue to excel as an important part of BRACU helping faculty attain more quality in teaching and in research.