A proposal has been made to establish a specialised public university in Cox’s Bazar, the University of Blue Economy Sciences and Technology (UBEST), to harness the vast potential of marine resources in the Bay of Bengal and coastal areas.
Cox’s Bazar-1 lawmaker Salahuddin Ahmed has sought Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s approval and necessary measures to establish the proposed university.
The home minister disclosed the proposal in a post on his verified Facebook page on Monday afternoon.
The proposal says specialised higher education, research, practical training and skilled human resources are essential to fully utilise the marine resources of the Bay of Bengal. However, the country currently has significant gaps in these areas.
Against this backdrop, the proposal argues that establishing UBEST in Cox’s Bazar could be a timely and important initiative.
Establishing a new university from scratch would require considerable time, funding and separate infrastructure. Accordingly, the proposal suggests using the existing infrastructure, laboratories, research facilities, scientific personnel, training environment, and coastal research framework of the Bangladesh Oceanographic Research Institute (BORI) in Cox’s Bazar to launch UBEST’s initial academic and practical activities.
BORI is already established in Cox’s Bazar as a national marine research institution. Its existing facilities could therefore allow a research-oriented and practical university to begin operations without waiting for the completion of extensive new infrastructure, the proposal says.
Initially, the university would offer teaching, research, training, and internship opportunities in areas including oceanography, fisheries and aquaculture, the marine environment, coastal resource management, the blue economy, marine data, and tourism and hospitality-related subjects.
If implemented, the initiative would help ensure better use of existing national research infrastructure related to the blue economy while creating a specialised institution for developing skilled human resources for the country’s emerging blue economy sector.
The proposal has sought the prime minister’s approval and the necessary measures to establish UBEST based on BORI’s existing academic and research facilities.
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