Enhancing Foundational English Learning through Classroom Practices: A Case Study at a Private University in Bangladesh

Introduction: University students represent a crucial period for establishing long-term dietary patterns and are particularly susceptible to nutritional challenges due to lifestyle changes. This study focuses on the dietary habits of university students in Bangladesh, a demographic undergoing significant changes in eating patterns amid urbanization and exposure to Westernized food cultures. Aim: This study aims to investigate the socio-demographic characteristics and dietary patterns of university students in Bangladesh, distinguishing between public and private university attendees. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study conducted over four months at two public and two private universities in Bangladesh. The sample consisted of 296 students, selected through systematic random sampling. Data collection involved face-to-face interviews using a semi-structured questionnaire. Dietary diversity was assessed based on the last 24 hours’ intake, and household food consumption scores were calculated over the past 7 days. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS (Version 17) and Stata (Version 13). Results: The study consists of approximately equal representation of students from public (48.63%) and private (51.37%) universities, with a slight male majority (53.87%). Significant economic disparities were found between students from public and private universities, impacting their monthly expenditures and dietary habits. Students from private universities displayed a more diverse diet, especially in higher consumption of vegetables, fruits, and protein sources. A notable correlation was found between economic status and dietary diversity, with private university students having higher food consumption scores. Conclusion: The study highlights substantial socio-economic disparities between students from public and private universities in Bangladesh, significantly influencing their dietary habits. Findings emphasize the need for targeted nutritional interventions and educational programs to mitigate the gaps in dietary diversity and health among university students. The study provides valuable insights for public health policymakers and educators in understanding and addressing the nutritional needs and challenges of university students in Bangladesh.

Education is considered the most significant factor in producing human resource developments in terms of social, cultural, technological, economic, and overall national perspectives. Higher education is influenced by several factors that affect the quality of students' education and outcomes. Most students in Bangladesh study at private universities from various socioeconomic conditions. Some of the factors have restricted their ability to attain higher education and as a result, impacted their academic performance. The goal of this study was to explore those socioeconomic factors affecting the academic performance of private university students in Bangladesh. The primary dataset was collected through an online survey from three private universities in Bangladesh named Varendra University (VU), Daffodil International University (DIU), and City University (CU). The Chi-square tests indicate that the age, gender, studying on a subject of their own choice, getting the right direction to make studying comfortable, consulting with the teacher about learning, family status, etc. variables significantly impacted their cumulative grade point average (CGPA). Relationships with parents and the opportunity to share opinions with parents were also significantly associated with their results. According to the multinomial logistic regression model age, gender, employment status, choice of own study field, getting the right direction, previous academic result, consultation with teachers, father's annual income, family status, and relationship with parents are found to be statistically significant determinants of academic performance. Considering the reality and outcomes of this study, to improve academic performance, parental involvement needs to be increased, and they must provide financial and material support to their offspring for their academic success. Moreover, for achieving a satisfactory CGPA, the students need to build friendly relationships with their parents and have regular consultations with their teachers as well.

The quality of a nation's higher education system significantly influences its socioeconomic progress. Universities have immense capacity to promote economic well-being in underdeveloped nations. This study examines the relative quality of education at both private and public universities in Bangladesh. The study used a quantitative research method, with a total of 220 respondents participating in a cross-sectional survey. Data was collected physically via a face-to-face interview and online using a standardized Google form. The cross-sectional survey respondents found both offline and online methods convenient. Data were analyzed using Excel and SPSS. The study used statistical data to analyze crucial elements that influence the quality of education. Results reveal considerable disparities in educational quality evaluations between public and private universities. Both kinds of universities have reasonable teacher-student ratios, but private universities do better. 45% of public university respondents rate library facilities highly, compared to 22% at private universities. Research facilities prefer public universities, with 44% of respondents evaluating them highly, compared to just 14% for private universities. The quality of ICT facilities is seen as superior at private universities, with 57% of participants rating them highly, in contrast to a mere 11% in public universities. Private universities perceive international collaboration as more effective, with 67% of respondents rating it as high, compared to 38% in public universities. This investigation emphasizes the strengths and weaknesses of both public and private universities in Bangladesh, offering valuable insights for educational administrators and policymakers who are endeavoring to improve the quality of education in both sectors.

The present study compares the university student’s experiences of learning in virtual mode during unprecedented impacts of the COVID-19 in Bangladesh and Indonesia with a focus on the enjoyment, performance, satisfaction, and cost of online learning.This was quantitative cross-sectional research conducted by using an online survey with the participation of 438 and 529 university students in Bangladesh and Indonesia. The findings reveal that university students in Bangladesh have little more comfortable with online learning compared to those in Indonesia. The students in both countries have no problem with adaptation to avant-garde online learning platforms. University students in Bangladesh appear little more satisfied with online teaching while those in Indonesia tend to be less satisfied. University students either in Bangladesh or in Indonesia consider online learning as an expensive learning mode. The present study depicts an early online remote learning experience of university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the nature of the descriptive comparative study focusing on Bangladesh and Indonesia, the results of this study may not be generalised. Specific factors underlying their experiences are in need of further investigation. In future endeavours, lectures are urged to actively harness proper technologies, mix between conventional and virtual learning or blend synchronous and asynchronous learning to provide more enjoyable and interesting online learning thus the students can be more satisfied.

Effective learning is vital for students in the tertiary stage. But it is often seen that students in Bangladesh are not effectively learning and often they are suffering from the lack of motivation and lack of skills, necessary for thriving in the contemporary world. This paper focuses on the importance of effective learning and how to achieve necessary study skills through effective study strategies. Further, this paper attempts to find out the underlying issues of demotivation of private university students in Bangladesh and the obstacles which hinder their effective learning along with examining the study habits of the students. This paper also suggests some recommendations as to how the identified obstacles and issues can be successfully sorted out by various strategies with a view to up-scaling effective learning by the students. Mixed approaches of qualitative and quantitative approaches have been adopted-qualitative for collecting necessary secondary data and quantitative for primary data. Secondary data have been collected from renowned universities and online sources. Primary data have been accumulated from the answers to a structured questionnaire consisting of 28 questions applied to 40 students on ‘Random Selection Process’ from a selected private university as a research sample. Finally, the data have been analyzed and presented through tables and figures.

Impact of the Use of Information Technology on University Teachers' Behaviors in Bangladesh

This paper is an attempt to scrutinize the impact of EMI policy (English as a Medium of Instruction) on the academic result of the students of a renowned private university in Bangladesh, based on the teachers’ and students' perceptions. After passing twelve years of education in Bengali medium instruction, when the students get themselves admitted into different private universities, they are confronted with EMI policy in their academic contexts. In most of the cases, it has been observed that the MOI (medium of instruction) used in classrooms is purely English. This may raise the affective filter of the freshers, coming from Bengali medium schools and colleges, leading towards gaining poor grades in their academic results. Hence, this research attempts to find out whether there is an association between the poor examination results and EMI policy according to the teachers’ and students’ perspectives. However, the research findings expose that the majority of the students encounter problems to upgrade their academic results because of using EMI strictly both in classrooms and in examinations. In addition, some teachers pointed out, due to EMI policy students face some problems initially, but there is no other way than accepting EMI /English as a medium of instruction to make the students adapted with the globalized world. On the other hand, a great number of the teachers think that a bilingual medium of instruction actually helps the students to study with interest and motivation, and to have a sound grasp over the content.
 Green University Review of Social Sciences Dec 2021; 7(1-2): 89-104

Student satisfaction is an outcome of the insight of service quality provided by the university. Government of Bangladesh introduces private universities in 1992 because of huge demand in higher education. Currently, there are 103 private universities, forty-three public universities and three international universities in Bangladesh. But it is a matter of sorrow that, universities are increasing day by day but the qualities of universities are not satisfactory. This study is a comparative study conducted on two universities (one is Rangamati Science and Technology University (public) and another one is Premier University (private). The study was pointed out academic services in the private and the public universities. Based on the review of literature a questionnaire was developed and it was distributed among 120 students. The total 120 respondents have been drawn probabilistically from 2 universities. Descriptive analysis, factor analysis have been used to analyze the data and to draw the findings. It has been found that satisfaction level of the private university students is not up to the mark. Finally, few suggestions have made to increase satisfaction of the university students in Bangladesh. Results revealed that students from Rangamati Science and Technology university (public) and Premier University (private) hold different opinion whether their expectation met or not.

Mobile phone is a great invention of the modern science which was invented for making our life easy and comfortable, but it is not only confined into benediction side, rater it has turned into addiction and malediction as well. It has become a worldwide problem. The hitch is being so accelerated that the future of our next generation is under a massive threat. Day by day the problem is growing severe. The university students, the future of our nation as well as the ordinary people of the world are also no exception of the addiction. Therefore, this study aims to identify the prevalence and extent of mobile addiction among university students so that how long in a day they use mobile phone can be identified. Besides, the study tries to explore the factors contributing to mobile addiction among them, in consequence the positive and negative aspects towards their education, physical and mental health can be recognized. Apart from these, the study examines the impact of mobile addiction on the academic performance, mental and physical health of university students as well. For the study quantitative and qualitative components have been implemented where a cross-sectional survey design is ensured. The quantitative aspect involves conducting a survey among 12 university students (6 public and 6 private universities) in Bangladesh to investigate the current situation of mobile device addiction on educational studies and psychological sound health. The survey conducted through online .To ensures a diverse representation of participants from various faculties and academic levels, a stratified random sampling method has been utilized for participant selection. As a result, it has been found that it carries both positive and negative aspects. But most of the students are impacted negatively. Consequently they are going to lose a good career, a sound physical and mental health and better life.

Purpose – The aim of this inquiry is to uncover the pattern of knowledge-sharing behaviour among the undergraduate and postgraduate students of private universities in Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach – This inquiry studied the knowledge-sharing pattern of undergraduate and graduate students by utilising a questionnaire-based open-ended survey from several private universities in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Apart from the descriptive statistics, the research used t-test to further explain the data. Findings – This research focussed on seven areas of knowledge-sharing pattern. The data collected from 350 respondents from different private universities suggest that there are significant differences in the knowledge-sharing pattern between undergraduate and graduate students. Overall, this research documents that the postgraduate students have shown higher perceived attitudes towards knowledge sharing, compared to undergraduate students. Research limitations/implications – This research applied a descriptive study to understand knowledge-sharing patterns among undergraduate and postgraduate students, rather than a correlational study to ascertain the relationship among variables. Practical implications – This research has contributed to the knowledge-sharing research in several aspects. In fact, this study extended the research findings of Wei et al. (2012) by examining the patterns of knowledge sharing in a different socioeconomic environment. Although this research investigated the practice of knowledge sharing of undergraduate and postgraduate students by adapting the instrument of Wei et al. (2012), one of the significant contributions of this research is to explore the behavioural aspects of knowledge-sharing pattern among undergraduate and postgraduate students from different private universities in Bangladesh. By interpreting the knowledge-sharing pattern of undergraduate and postgraduate students of private universities, this inquiry will assist the government’s policymakers, management of individual universities and academicians to come up with novel methods of instruction and to transform the knowledge-driven higher learning establishment. Originality/value – The majority of studies on knowledge sharing have been conducted in an organisational context. This inquiry is one of few investigations to compare the knowledge-sharing patterns among undergraduate and postgraduate students in Bangladesh.

The world has been shaken and normalcy has been stifled due to Covid-19 pandemic leading the affected people to adapt to, adopt new ways of life and reconstitute habit inviting activities other than those previously practiced. Reading habits of university students have been affected adversely by the unprecedented pandemic. While the students, during this period being distanced from the regular academic environment, have opted for alternative engagements, the time for reading and number of books covered have dwindled remarkably. This article examined the changed dynamics of both academic and nonacademic reading habits of the students at public and private universities in Bangladesh. Data were collected from 700 students through a questionnaire using Google form. The results show that reading habits have been adversely affected during this pandemic as 44.6% students read books only 1-2 hours whereas 57.4% of them spend 5-6 hours using electronic devices for multiple purposes mostly other than reading. This study recommends developing a strategy by the concerned authority starting from the state level to institutions to attract the learners and facilitate learning online with a rich and reliable reservatory of study materials with easy accessibility.

Covid-19 has significantly changed the lives of millions of people worldwide, especially university students. The pandemic has a strong influence on university students, all of whom are concerned about their future. This paper addresses the issue of the impact of the pandemic on final-year internship students. The work’s goal is to illustrate how Covid-19 outbreaks in the last year have influenced final-year internship university students and their internships, internship opportunities, career prospects, psychological well-being, and motivation. The Covid-19 impact is so huge on education. The purpose of this study is to show how it hampers a specific sector, like university final year internship students. In the future, if anybody wants to know the situation of intern students at universities, they will get to know it. The work aims to examine and classify the fundamental problems that final year students have faced in finding an internship during the Covid-19 pandemic period, the obstacles they face in finding an internship, how universities help their students, how students get internships, why internship opportunities are getting limited, and how students overcome obstacles in finding an internship. To complete this research, first, we chose around 25 questions and worked on them to survey different university students in Bangladesh. The research was performed using reviews of different research papers and a survey approach. The survey has been developed using the Google Forms platform. Three hundred students who are currently studying at public and private universities in Bangladesh participated in the study. Students have been asked to answer 25 questions online. The data was evaluated concretely. Most of those students were from the last semester or last year of their university life. And in the end, we finally came to a conclusion about how the research worked. It creates a scenario where over 300 students have shared their thoughts on each aspect of the research questions. Whether they suffer or not, most of them find it pretty difficult to complete their internship because most of the participants were university final year students, and after completing all the research, the results can be written as if there was no situation like this, it would be much easier and more convenient for all the final year university interns.

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted educational systems worldwide, leading to the closure of schools and universities. As a result, schools and universities have been forced to modify the way teaching and learning occurs. Specifically, universities had to adopt alternate learning platforms to provide instructions to learners remotely. This study explores the effects of COVID-19 on learning experience among university students in Bangladesh. Exploring students’ perceptions and behavioral responses to learning identifies pedagogical obstacles and novel approaches to address the challenges. Following IRB approval, study data was drawn from 60 students by conducting ten focus groups at six public and private universities in Bangladesh. The findings of our study include five major themes: (1) “they were behind for almost two years;” (2) “the internet issue was a big problem;” (3) “financially, it impacted a lot;” (4) “I felt anxious, depressed, and hopeless;” and (5) “problems like headaches and back pain.” Findings of the study address the need to prioritize need-based support and increase capacities and related skills to provide education remotely in Bangladesh. Findings can also guide educators and university administrators in responding effectively to support students.

In Bangladesh, the number of students passing in Higher Secondary level is increasing every year. But the number of seats in public universities is not increase in proportion. So, the next choice is to get admission in private universities. But again, there are few private universities in Bangladesh which maintains the quality for higher education. As a result, many talented students look for a foreign university to get a higher degree. This study was conducted to understand the important factors that influence the selection an overseas university among Bangladeshi university students with a self administered questionnaire. A total of 100 questionnaires were analyzed using regression in SPSS to come up with a justified conclusion. The result from the analysis indicates that the regression model used in the study is statistically significant and the independent variables that were selected in this study had significant influence on the dependent variable. The primary aim of this research was to help private universities in Bangladesh to attract more talented students.

PurposeThis research aims to explore how social media influences the academic performance of university students in Bangladesh and examines the benefits and drawbacks of its usage.Design/methodology/approachWe distributed a well-structured questionnaire among students enrolled in various programs at different universities in Bangladesh to collect data. We analyzed the data using factor analysis and regression models to uncover the impact of social media on academic performance.FindingsOur research findings demonstrate that social media plays a crucial role in facilitating communication, information sharing and content development among university students in Bangladesh. Excessive reliance on social media can lead to dependence and hinder innovation, as students tend to excessively rely on readily available resources.Research limitations/implicationsWe relied on self-reported data from a limited sample size, which may affect the generalizability of our findings.Social implicationsThis study highlights the need to promote responsible use of social media among university students in Bangladesh to enhance their academic performance. We recommend implementing effective policy measures to control and manage undesired usage patterns, foster an intellectually equipped student body and contribute to the development of a knowledgeable and successful Bangladesh.Originality/valueThis research makes a significant contribution by examining the influence of social media on academic performance among university students in Bangladesh. It proposes practical policy measures to address the drawbacks associated with excessive reliance on social media, thereby contributing to decision-making and intervention strategies for promoting responsible usage.