As part of a budding partnership with the University of Bath in the UK, AUW was honored to welcome a group of professors and faculty members in Chittagong last month. The trip was a chance for the Bath representatives to learn more about the university, its students, the staff members, and the local community to develop a longstanding and fruitful partnership between the two institutions.
Our guests included: Professor Tim Ibell, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering & Design; Professor Momna Hejmadi, Associate Pro Vice Chancellor (Education) and Professor of Bioscience Education; Professor Joe Devine, Associate PVC Research (Doctoral), Dept of Social and Policy Sciences; and Ms. Loretta Gibson, Director of Operations, Faculty of Engineering & Design.
During the trip the group were able to explore the local area and build relationships within the institution by visiting the new university campus site, listening to student’s journeys, discussing program developments with faculty, and planning cross-intuitional exchanges with the leadership team.
Making the most of the visitor’s expertise while at AUW, guests lectures were also delivered by Professor Hejmadi and Professor Devine, who has spent his career researching poverty lines in Bangladesh and is an expert on local communities.
Professor Hejmadi, who has been at the University of Bath for almost 15 years, said that AUW showed her the power of education as a transformational tool in the lives of women and girls. “We often talk about education as a means for achieving social mobility, but what I witnessed at AUW showed me it can be so much more than that. It showed me how transformative higher education works in practice, particularly for many vulnerable girls who would otherwise have no means of accessing higher education. The dedicated staff, faculty and students have been truly inspirational.”
Professor Ibell described his AUW experience as ‘life affirming’ sharing that: “It was so moving to listen to the stories of the women whose lives have been transformed through the very existence of AUW. If you ever want to see first-hand the quite extraordinary power of Higher Education, then visit AUW. My sincere thanks to all I met for helping me to reset my own priorities.”
During the March 2024 meetings of the Board of Trustees of AUW, Professor Tim Ibell, Dean of the School of Architecture and Engineering at Bath was unanimously elected to the Board of Trustees and Chair of the AUW Campus Planning Committee. AUW’s Founder Kamal Ahmad was also appointed as a Visiting Professor at Bath University (by courtesy).