IUBAT has set out the long-term vision of producing at least one professional graduate from each village/ward under the KBAD concept as a step towards community self-reliance. To materialize this vision and to translate the concept into reality, IUBAT has special provision for supplementing the family resources of a student through scholarship, grant, fee waiver, deferred payment, campus job, educational financing and the like. It is IUBAT policy to cater to the needs of all qualified students who aspire to higher professional education-regardless of the income level of his/her family through appropriate educational financing arrangements. To institutionalize the educational financing, IUBAT has established an educational cooperative in the form of IUBAT Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd. (IMCSL), with a share capital of 50 million taka divided in 500 thousand shares of Tk 100 each. One of the prime objectives of IMCSL is to mobilize funds for providing educational financing and scholarship to the members and their dependents to help them pursue higher education and professional training. IMCSL can be a prelude to establishment of an Educational Bank with a wider mandate. Anyone can contribute to the share capital by becoming a member and pave the way for educational financing. IUBAT has also introduced the Career Development Financing scheme for students out of the IMCSL as well as the Financial Assistance Fund (FAF). Besides facilities of deferred fees payment have been introduced at IUBAT. Financing under FAF are free of any service charge, while financing from IMCSL or deferred payment from the university carry service charges. Students after graduation and employment are required to repay the borrowed money on easy monthly installments, consistent with the earning potential of the degree/diploma/certificate. Through this process, IUBAT is already practicing the concept of Knowledge Based Area Development to a limited extent. To realize the concept on a wider scale, it is proposed to pick up one young man or woman from each village / ward and give him / her a degree / diploma / certificate in marketable skills on the basis of self-financing or in combination with deferred tuition payment facilities to be extended by IUBAT or Career Development Financing to be availed from IMCSL or from the FAF of IUBAT.
Extending KBAD
To make the concept operational, each educated member of Bangladesh society, who made productive use of their education, is urged to motivate one HSC or equivalent passed young man or woman belonging to his/her place of birth (village/ward/moholla) to enroll in any of the degree/diploma /certificate programs of IUBAT. Professional educational programs presently available at IUBAT include subjects like business administration, computer science, engineering, agriculture, economics, hospitality and tourism and nursing.
Besides motivation to enroll, the referee should make an assessment of the individual’s/ family’s ability to pay the relevant university fees during the study period and recommend to the university authority for granting financing under the deferred payment facility of IUBAT or other alternatives for those who do not have the ability to pay the full fees during the study period. Referral may also be made to other universities or institutions having professional educational programs with financial support facilities.
Furthermore, the concerned member of the society should assist in development of the referred student through encouragement and psychological support during his/her difficult educational transition period. IUBAT will send a copy of the result of the student every semester, until graduation, to the referee for information and continued motivational support. This will enable the individual to observe the outcome of his/her referral effort for development of an individual.
Through such enrollment motivation, facilitation, and encouragement during the study period each educated person will have an opportunity to repay his/her debt to the place of birth by facilitating knowledge/skill acquisition for area development and lay the seeds for community self-reliance.
Concluding Remarks
The Knowledge Based Area Development concept is a bold attempt to prepare a section of the population to break out of poverty and enter into an era of prosperity. This knowledge-based development will require considerable financial capital resource as well as institutional infra-structure.
Active participation of every educated individual of the country in building a prosperous Bangladesh based on knowledge will give rise to a drive towards nation building. This will be worth emulating paving the way for development of the country as a prosperous self-respecting nation.