Online education to become less costly for varsity students
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Saturday
January 28, 2023

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 2023
Online education to become less costly for varsity students

Education

Eyamin Sajid
12 November, 2020, 10:15 pm
Last modified: 12 November, 2020, 10:26 pm

Related News

  • 'GoGEE8 Schoolbari' launched to make learning easier
  • 3 best online courses to learn entrepreneurship
  • Blended learning adoption at snail’s pace
  • Teach It: Democratising education through e-learning
  • ‘Infrastructural development needs to keep up with growth in e-learning’

Online education to become less costly for varsity students

The University Grants Commission signed a MoU with Grameenphone to provide university students with affordable and customised data packs

Eyamin Sajid
12 November, 2020, 10:15 pm
Last modified: 12 November, 2020, 10:26 pm
TBS Illustration by Monni.
TBS Illustration by Monni.

Highlight: UGC's bid to bring students back to virtual classes        

  • Has signed agreement with GP to offer affordable Internet to students

  • MoU with Robi likely in next two weeks

  • Other operators are expected to engage soon

  • Earlier, took initiative to provide smartphones to 41,501 students

  • 3,04, 414 students currently enrolled at 39 public universities


In the backdrop of the prolonged closures of educational institutions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the University Grants Commission (UGC) plans on bringing students back to virtual classrooms by providing them with affordable Internet with support from mobile operators.

As part of the initiative, the regulatory authority on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the country's largest digital service provider Grameenphone to offer affordable and customised data packs to university students across the country.

Md Kamal Hossain, director (Public University Management Division) at the UGC, told The Business Standard the commission will sign a similar agreement with Robi – the second largest mobile network operator in the country – next week.

The commission is also in the process to engage other mobile operators in the process to empower the possibilities of online education for students who have been out of physical classrooms for eight months, said a source at the UGC.

Grameenphone is the first telecom operator to sign such an MoU with the UGC to make these packs commercially available to all public and private universities that wish to avail those for their students and faculty members.

However, the operator did not disclose the rate of the data packs and the number of students it is going to address.

The very affordable monthly students online education pack of Grameenphone will allow students to access their virtual classrooms through Zoom (via BdREN), Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Gmail, Google Search Engine, and access local university sites.

Beyond the students' connectivity, universities will also have access to broadcasting solutions [SMS and voice broadcast] to reach their students centrally, as well as a centralised control panel to manage the SIM and data packs for their student base.

Earlier, the UGC decided to provide 41,501 students of public universities Tk8,000 each in interest-free loan by January 2021 to help them buy smartphones so that they attend online classes amid the pandemic.

Commenting on this, Md Kamal Hossain said "We have directed the universities and they are providing the loan to students who are demanding applying for it."

Currently, around 304,414 students are enrolled at 39 public universities in the country.

Addressing Thursday's MoU signing programme, UGC Chairperson Professor Dr Kazi Shahidullah said, "Technology adoption has become an integral part of the education sector's evolution during this pandemic situation when our students are struggling in remote areas to get back in their classes. We appreciate Grameenphone's noble intention to support the UGC and serve the greater education sector in this moment of a national crisis." 

Kazi Mahboob Hassan, chief business officer of Grameenphone, commented, "Our students are struggling to continue their study. We'll not be able to recover that loss. At Grameenphone, we are committed to empower Bangladesh with our widest 4G LTE network, and our students must get the full benefit of communications technology and digitalisation."

He also said they are honoured to partner with the UGC in this noble initiative.

The leading telecom service provider in Bangladesh, Grameenphone has more than 76 million subscribers.

Bangladesh / Top News

Online education / less costly / varsity students

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • How will Bangladesh pay for massive upcoming power projects this year?
    How will Bangladesh pay for massive upcoming power projects this year?
  • Israeli forces work next to a covered body at the scene of a shooting attack in Neve Yaacov which lies on occupied land that Israel annexed to Jerusalem after the 1967 Middle East war January 27, 2023. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
    Seven dead in synagogue attack outside Jerusalem
  •  Gautam Adani, center.Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
    What really worries Indians about Adani's empire

MOST VIEWED

  • Photo: Courtesy
    BAF Shaheen English medium college holds annual sports competition
  • CUMUN 2023 Begins with the call for Peace Through Unity
    CUMUN 2023 Begins with the call for Peace Through Unity
  • Ethics Club Bangladesh honours 11 teachers
    Ethics Club Bangladesh honours 11 teachers
  • Photo: Courtesy
    Brac university celebrates 'Hope Festival 2023' with flash mob
  • Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni. Picture: Collected
    Specific conduct rules for MPO-listed teachers to be formulated: Dipu Moni
  • Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen. Picture: File Photo
    Foreign minister lauds Residential Model College for UAE sustainability prize win

Related News

  • 'GoGEE8 Schoolbari' launched to make learning easier
  • 3 best online courses to learn entrepreneurship
  • Blended learning adoption at snail’s pace
  • Teach It: Democratising education through e-learning
  • ‘Infrastructural development needs to keep up with growth in e-learning’

Features

Sketch:TBS

Why we need consumer education for consumer wellbeing

14h | Thoughts
Dr Ahsan H Mansur, Executive Director, Policy Research Institute. Illustration: TBS

Twin shocks call for stronger domestic policy response

15h | Thoughts
December-er shohor, taxi taken for airport and the Park Street bathed in lights. Photo: Jannatul Naym Pieal

Exploring Kolkata on foot, empowered by Google Maps

16h | Explorer
Island hopping in Bangladesh?

Island hopping in Bangladesh?

18h | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Kajol’s road paintings bring change in Gafargaon

Kajol’s road paintings bring change in Gafargaon

1d | TBS Stories
Carew & Company witnessed a remarkable growth

Carew & Company witnessed a remarkable growth

1d | TBS Stories
Gavi may have to leave Camp Nou

Gavi may have to leave Camp Nou

5h | TBS SPORTS
After all the controversies, how is Shah Rukh Khan's ‘Pathaan’?

After all the controversies, how is Shah Rukh Khan's ‘Pathaan’?

7h | TBS Entertainment

Most Read

1
Picture: Collected
Bangladesh

US Embassy condemns recent incidents of visa fraud

2
Four top bankers arrested in DSA case filed by S Alam group 
Bangladesh

Four top bankers arrested in DSA case filed by S Alam group 

3
Illustration: TBS
Banking

16 banks at risk of capital shortfall if top 3 borrowers default

4
Photo: Collected
Splash

Hansal Mehta responds as Twitter user calls him 'shameless' for making Faraaz

5
A frozen Beyond Burger plant-based patty. Photographer: AKIRA for Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Special

Fake meat was supposed to save the world. It became just another fad

6
Representational Image
Banking

Cash-strapped Islami, Al-Arafah and National turn to Sonali Bank for costly fund

EMAIL US
[email protected]
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2023
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - [email protected]

For advertisement- [email protected]