ULAB Covid-19 Outreach Activities

While the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) adjusted quickly to the COVID-19 crisis, faculty members of the university also reached out to or were invited by other institutions to offer support and share experiences with those unable to transition smoothly to online teaching and learning.


April 13, 2020

  • Webinar on “Impact of COVID-19 on Startups of Bangladesh” organized by ULAB EMBA Program featuring Sajid Amit, Director, EMBA Program; Tina Jabeen, Investment Advisor, ICT Division, Government of Bangladesh; Fahim Ahmed, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Pathao; Maksudul Islam, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Shohoz; and Rubaiyath Sarwar, Managing Director, Innovision Consulting Private Limited.
    Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/593661567912696/?active_tab=discussion

May 5, 2020

  • From the outset of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Center for Enterprise and Society (CES) advocated for the initiatives and policies needed for the recovery of economic sectors from potential irreversible damages caused by country-wide sustained shutdown. During that time, CES launched two major COVID Advocacy campaigns in partnership with relevant stakeholders of the country’s financial sector.
    • Research: COVID-19 and the Revival of Bangladesh’s Capital Market: CES worked closely with practitioners in Bangladesh Capital Markets to lobby for regulatory changes to revive the moribund stock market in Bangladesh, which was actually shut down during COVID. CES’s advocacy included webinar meetings, drafting internal policy notes based on research for the stock market regulator, and op-eds.

May 13, 2020

  • CES Webinar Series: Digital Credit for COVID-19 Economic Recovery: CES felt the urgent need to initiate dialogues among the relevant stakeholders to help accelerate the introduction of digital credit in Bangladesh and hence launched a 6-episode webinar series on digital credit. CES partnered with high-level government agency (a2i), university (ULAB EMBA Program), media outlet (Dhaka Tribune), think tank (Knowledge Factory), association (Digital Finance Forum Bangladesh), and institute (Digital Frontiers Institute) for the webinars.
    • The Webinar Episodes:
      • Episode 1: Market Demand for Digital Credit
      • Episode 2: Digital Credit and Challenges in the Supply-Side
      • Episode 3: Transformation of MFIs for Digital Credit
      • Episode 4: Alternative Credit Scoring and Delivery Channels
      • Episode 5: How the International Fintechs are Doing it?
      • Episode 6: Legal and Regulatory Challenges for Digital Credit

In these episodes, 46 high-level panelists, who are also the leaders in their respective fields, represented government ministry, financial institutions, microfinance institutions, international development organizations (INGO), business conglomerates, telecommunications companies, start-ups, regulatory authorities, and think tanks.


June 17, 2020

  • Professor Shamsad Mortuza, Pro Vice-Chancellor, ULAB, was invited by The Hollings Center to an online dialogue event entitled “Transition to Remote Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic” to re-engage with participants of the 2019 South Asia Higher Education Symposium. The dialogue aimed to provide an opportunity for participants to share their own experiences with the transition to remote learning while discussing challenges and successes. Other panelists were from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India.
    Video Link: https://southasiahed.org/transition-to-remote-learning-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/

June 24, 2020


July 4, 2020

  • Professor Jude W. Genilo, Head of Media Studies and Journalism and Director, IQAC, was a panelist at a LIVE online discussion on “Adopting to Virtual Learning in Bangladesh: Temporary Trend or Paradigm Shift?” organized by Stamford University, Bangladesh.
    Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C447TPWvjko

July 25 and August 26, 2020

  • Dr. Mohammad Tareque Rahman, Associate Professor of the General Education Department, conducted two workshops organized by the ULAB Communications Office for college teachers to address the challenges that arose from the shift to online teaching/learning during the pandemic and to offer ULAB’s support and expertise to other institutions. The workshop on “Online Teaching-Learning: Integrating Technology with Pedagogy” was held on two days for two different groups of teachers.


July 26, 2020

  • Professor Shamsad Mortuza, Pro Vice-Chancellor, ULAB, and Head of the Department of English and Humanities, participated as a discussant in a webinar entitled “Higher Studies in the US: Opportunities for Returnee Scholars” organized by the Engineering Students’ Association of Bangladesh with EducationUSA.
    Link: https://www.facebook.com/esab.bd/photos/rpp.261057650586475/4727516167273912/?type=3&theater&_rdc=1&_rdr

August 22, 2020

  • Professor Jude W. Genilo, Head of Media Studies and Journalism and Director, IQAC, was a panelist on a webinar titled “Role of IQAC in Ensuring Quality of Education in the Current Pandemic Situation” organized by North South University, Dhaka.
    Report: http://institutions.northsouth.edu/iqac/?p=2060

September 2020

  • Arifa Ghani Rahman, Associate Professor of English and Humanities, was invited by The Grid Media, Ltd., a UK-based content development company, to develop a video lecture titled “Understanding the Online Teaching/Learning Environment: Preparing to Meet the Challenges” for an online video-based course called, “Global Perspectives for Educators: Digital Education.” The course has been designed for K12 teaching professionals in the US and specifically focuses on digital education being the innovative use of digital tools, platforms and technologies during teaching and learning.
    Video Link: https://vimeo.com/444912466

September 19, 2020


October 20, 2020 and November 2, 2020

  • Arifa Ghani Rahman, Associate Professor of English and Humanities, and Wazir F. Ahmad, Assistant Professor, ULAB School of Business, were invited to conduct 2 sessions on “Student-Centered Learning” and “Outcome-based Education,” respectively. The first session was conducted for teachers of Bamyan University, Afghanistan and the second session was for teachers of various universities in Afghanistan. Both sessions were organized by Bamyan University.


October 28, 2020

  • Professor Shamsad Mortuza, Pro Vice-Chancellor, ULAB, participated as a Reactor to a talk by Professor Frank Dooley, Chancellor, Purdue University Global on “Reimagining Higher Education in a Post-COVID-19 World: A Virtual Conversation with US and Bangladesh Experts” organized by the EMK Center and the US Embassy, Dhaka.
    Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgjKWVfGwA4&feature=youtu.be

November 1, 2020

  • With a small grant from The Hollings Center, USA, Professor Shamsad Mortuza, Pro Vice-Chancellor, ULAB, and Head of the Department of English and Humanities, with Arifa Ghani Rahman, Associate Professor of English and Humanities, collaborated with Professor Colla MacDonald of University of Ottawa, and Dr. Suhail Islam of Nazareth College, NY, USA, to produce four short videos teachers preparing to transition to online teaching. The series is called “Get Started: A Video Series for Educators Preparing to Teach Online.”
    Link: https://southasiahed.org/video/

November 26, 2020

  • Professor Jude W. Genilo, Head of Media Studies and Journalism and Director, IQAC, presented a paper titled “Responses to the Pandemic: Institutional Quality Assurance Cells in Bangladesh” at the 12th Higher Education International Conference on Teaching and Learning Quality Assurance in Higher Education under the Pandemic organized online by the Macao Polytechnic Institute in association with APQN.


November 27, 2020