BUBT Professor Dr. Muhammad Mahboob Ali contributes at International Higher Education Conference 2026 Dhaka

Prof. Dr. Muhammad Mahboob Ali, Professor of Economics at Bangladesh University of Business and Technology (BUBT) and External Auditor of Bangladesh Accreditation Council (BAC) has made his mark in the International Conference on Innovation, Excellence and Quality for Transformation in Higher Education 2026 (THE 2026). The two-day international event was held at the Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) on 12-13 June 2026, and brought together educationists, policy makers and researchers from home and abroad.

Prof. Ali had lots of important roles to play at the conference. First, he chaired Technical Session D1T1P2 on Curriculum Innovation and Outcome-Based Education and steer the discussions with his well-known expertise. On June 13, he presented a solo research paper “Strategic Framework for Higher Education Accreditation and Global Ranking (2027-2037)” in Technical Session D2T6P2 – Leadership, Policy and Governance in Higher Education. The session chairman appreciated the paper for its significant contribution for the country.

Prof. Ali also co-presented in 2 other large studies. The first is “English and Mathematics as Foundations of Employability in TVET: Competency Gaps Among Bangladeshi Students – A Case Study of UCEP Bangladesh Using NVivo” written along with Farhana Easmin Mitu and Mizanur Rahman. The second paper titled “Field Investigation on Perception of Pupils on Economic and Non-Economic Factors Affecting Admission & Non-Completion of Studies at BUBT – In Line with the Four Domains of BAC” was jointly written with Farhana Easmin Mitu, Mizanur Rahman and Tasfiunnoor Pinky.

The research team recommended the extension of the findings to other universities to enhance students’ welfare and retain experienced PhD-qualified teachers engaged in active research. “The second study is an extraordinary research work,” said Prof Md Golam Samdani Fakir of the Brac University. He urged policymakers to embrace the findings and compare public and private universities nationwide.

Prof. Ali was also a QA expert panelist in the IQAC Forum Panel Discussion on “Integrating Policy, Strategy and Practice for Advancing Governance, Quality Culture and Accreditation in Higher Education”. From the bench of the participants he had some practical suggestions. These included development of software for facilitating assessment tasks of PISAC members and faculty members, Strengthening BAC’s role as output auditor to improve standard of the country, streamlining of the moderation process, preparation of answer scripts based on PLOs and CLOs with the support of POEs, rubrics and assessment tools, withdrawal of VAT and banking charges on APC fees for Scopus and WoS journals and request to the University Grants Commission (UGC) of Bangladesh for introducing a journal ranking system for the country’s tertiary educational institutions.

Prof. Dr. Muhammad Mahboob Ali has once again proved that Bangladeshi academics are not only keeping pace with the global standards but also actively contributing to chart the future of quality higher education from a session chair to a paper presenter to a policy advisor.

He thanked IUB for arranging this timely conference and hoped that other higher education institutions would follow IUB’s example in arranging such international conferences. “This would help in raising the standard of education in the country and bridging the gap between public and private universities,” he said.

(Dhakatimes/15june/RZ)