The University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) has secured a spot in the World’s Universities with Real Impact (WURI) Ranking for 2020, for innovation and creativity.
WURI, which aims to discover innovative universities that prepare for the world in the fourth industrial revolution through new education and research efforts, placed ULAB – the only Bangladeshi university in the list – at the 46th spot under the “industrial applications” category. A press release was issued in this regard on Wednesday by the university.
WURI Project Leader Professor MOON Hwy-Chang made the announcement at events held in the Korean capital of Seoul on June 11.
Meanwhile, the top five ranking universities under the said category are, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Minerva Schools at Keck Graduate Institute, California Institute of Technology, and Arizona State University respectively.
“ULAB’s entry to the WURI Ranking for innovative and creative approaches with regards to industrial applications is the thesis of the Masters in Communication program offered by the Media Studies and Journalism Department.
“The program has a unique integrated approach towards conducting the thesis, as instead of burdening the students with the whole thesis at one go, it is developed throughout the two years the students spend in the program,” read the release.
“Students go through a seven-step process — idea inquiry (term1), proposal writing (term 1, 2 and 3), proposal hearing (term 4), thesis writing (term 5, 6), presentation and defence (term 6), revision and finalization (term 6), and turn-over (end of term 6).
“To provide better guidance to the students, the program has also developed two kinds of mentoring systems – joint mentoring (for topic exploration and development) and specialized mentoring (for data instrument formulation, data analysis, and interpretation). It has likewise utilized a reflexive approach in thesis writing and a co-creator philosophy in knowledge creation,” added the release.
The ranking done by WURI is composed of the global top 100 and the top 50 universities in each of the following categories, industrial applications, start-ups and entrepreneurship, social responsibility, ethics and integrity; and student mobility and openness for exchange and collaboration.
Given ULAB’s entry into the “industrial applications” category, the university was also eligible for consideration in the list of WURI 2020: Global Top 100 Innovative Universities, but this time it could not make it to the coveted list.
The WURI Ranking was developed by the Hanseatic League of Universities (HLU).
The HLU Board of Trustees consists of university presidents from the Netherlands, China, Russia, Germany, South Korea, the US, and Finland.
The mission of HLU is innovation in teaching and research in higher education institutions thus it formed an alternative ranking system called WURI.
Instead of looking at statistics on research, internationalization, and perception, it evaluates a university’s real contribution to society and also highlights creative and innovative approaches to the university’s research and education.
For more information, one can pay a visit to http://www.wuri.world. ♦
(The story originally published by Dhaka Tribune)
