Reason to celebrate AIUB’s 22nd convocation, view with Olympian detachment

It is a coincidence that the 22nd Convocation of American International University – Bangladesh (AIUB) was held on the 22 February 2025.

However, arriving at the finishing line of their university life of 2,547 AIUB graduates was, by no means, an act of providence.

An intuitive but staid question that follows this festive day is: what ought to be the meaningful and measurable reasons to celebrate university convocation?

Amidst the flurry of traditional impressionistic celebratory reasons, this brief article highlights a few unidimensional criteria—measured in the context of American International University—Bangladesh (AIUB) and, by extension, can be used by any other universities—to celebrate convocations.

The data used in the article were collected for two research papers on scale development to measure university reputation and student motivation in transnational education settings, published (and upcoming) in the Journal of Higher Education and Research.

 Emphasizing the need to reflect with an Olympian detachment on such issues, the article argues that the hard work ahead to continue delivering quality education and remaining student-focused - as demonstrated by AIUB amidst all challenges – should be the key reason to celebrate convocations.

Universities are hubs of producing and disseminating knowledge—defined as justified true belief. A reflection on how universities produce knowledge and, more importantly, how it is perceived and absorbed by students is necessary, if not essential, for academics.  

Much like Nalanda Mahabihar's circle of scholars, thriving under the patronage of the rulers of ancient Bengal or the Inklings in Oxford, initiated by Tolkien and Lewis, universities have always had intellectual circles to reflect and perfect ideas, trends and direction of knowledge production.

At a fractured time, reflection with an Olympian detachment can be deeply productive to rein in the much-needed intellectual bond and alignment in knowledge production. The famed Lewis (1955) quote “Nothing, I suspect, is more astonishing in any man’s life than the discovery that there do exist people very, very like himself”  lends much credence to such quest for intellectual bonding and alignments amongst the academics of diverse discipline.

Convocations, among others, offer the opportunity to flock and forge intellectual friendships with like-minded scholars to reflect the quality of knowledge that our universities produce. Such reflections, when keeping the students’ perception at the centre, can make the convocation event rich, complete and meaningful.

The context of this year’s convocations in Bangladeshi universities is unique. The 2025 graduates have witnessed and in most cases were part of the country’s epochal transition.

While the political dimension of the transition is beyond the scope of this article, it is relevant to note that the gut, grit and sacrifice of the private university students marked a critical turning point in the July-August student-led uprising. Indeed, the giving of the private university students in this historic movement was not just a drop in the ocean, but, perhaps, the entire ocean in a drop.

That said, the universities – both public and private – have faced enormous challenges to return to normalcy. Syndicates, Academic Councils, and Faculties scrambled to revise and adjust academic plans and modalities to make up for the loss in academic activities and to deliver quality teaching and learning experiences to their students. So how did the students perceive their university experience while passing through this fractured time?

The quality of education – as perceived by the students - can be a useful benchmark to celebrate convocations. To measure perceived service quality, a unidimensional scale adapted from Latif et al. (2019) was used to capture the six components of service quality in higher education, namely (1) teachers and teaching, (2) administrative and support services, (3) knowledge transmission, (4) extracurricular activities, (5) institutional improvement, and (6) leaders’ responsiveness to students’ needs.   

Stable data from 323 AIUB students, was obtained through a survey using Google form with the informed consent of each participant. Amongst the respondents, 74.9 per cent  were male, 25.1 per cent  female and their main subject areas of studies included applied sciences (e.g. computer science, engineering) totalling 96.6 per cent , Humanities (1.2 per cent ) Natural and formal sciences (0.9 per cent ), Social sciences: 0.6 per cent, Other: 0.6 per cent.

Questions as proxy indicators for six components were used to know students’ perceptions on a seven-point Likert scale. Responses like strongly agree, agree and slightly agree were grouped as positive while strongly disagree, disagree and slightly disagree were taken as negative responses.

The overall response indicates that an overwhelming number of students hold a positive perception of AIUB's quality of education.

For example, when asked if "knowledge is effectively developed and imparted in this university" around 84.5 per cent responded positively while a negative perception prevailed amongst 5.5 per cent  of students, leaving 10per cent  of students as neutral.

When asked if "a wide range of recreational and personal/professional development activities are available at this university” - a proxy indicator for extracurricular activities - 81.2 per cent of students responded positively while 8.3 per cent  responded negatively. Students' perceptions on proxy questions related to the quality of administrative and support services and leadership’s response were also largely positive (77.1 per cent positive response for administrative and support services and 76.2 per cent on university leader’s responsiveness to students’ needs).

Finally, the students’ perception about the quality of the teachers and teaching recorded a whopping 85.5 per cent positive response while a meagre 6.1 per cent of students held negative perceptions.

Guaranteeing quality education and making our universities the hub of producing future leaders for Bangladesh and beyond demands not to be complacent about what we have achieved, but what we can and should aspire to achieve. The quest should be how to improve further in all six dimensions – preferably with a target to achieve 90 per cent or above positive student perception.  

Universities deliver not just job-ready graduates but also the next generation of thinkers, scientists, innovators, entrepreneurs and professionals. As a new cohort of graduates joins the alumni, universities should remain focused on the hard work ahead to continue providing quality education, measured against students’ perceptions.

Indeed, the tempo and scale of building back a better Bangladesh hinge on creating the next generation of enlightened and all-rounded leaders – a task that our universities should remain committed to pursuing with passion and professionalism.

Our spirited and honest commitment to providing quality education – a task that entails team work by all elements and echelons of a university - should undergird our reasons to celebrate convocations.

Good luck and Godspeed to all the 2025 graduates of AIUB and beyond.

*Ishtiaq Abedin is the founder member of the AIUB Board of Trustees and Secretary, Association of Private Universities of Bangladesh. He can be reached at iabedin@aiub.edu.

*Dr Mohammad Zahidul Islam Khan, a retired Group Captain of Bangladesh Air Force and Chevening scholar is the Registrar of AIUB and a Visiting Research Fellow of the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Reading, United Kingdom. He can be reached at zikhan@aiub.edu.