Academic

AIUB Unveiled Sun Academic Initiative

Edward Apurba Singha

American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB) for the first time in the country launches the Sun Academic Initiative (SAI) in collaboration with JOBS-IRIS Bangladesh to create efficient IT human resource with international recognition. The Sun Academic Initiative (SAI) is a program designed to create a sustainable relationship between Sun and academic institutions. Courses delivered through this program will introduce students to Sun Microsystems technologies, prepare them for industry-leading certification, and equip them with marketable IT job skills. As a part of this program, non-profit institutions get incentives such as deliver training on Sun technologies to their faculty, staff, and students. In addition, faculty, staff and students can obtain free access to selected online courses through the Sun Learning Center.

To mark this event AIUB observed “Technology Day” at the university in the city recently. On that day in a special panel session Vice Chancellor of AIUB, Dr. Carmen Z. Lamagna welcomed Dr. Moyeen Khan, Honorable Minister of Science and ICT as a chief guest. This session also included Mr. A. Imran Shauket, JOBS-IRIS Bangladesh, Country Representative, and Mr. Thulasidoss Mohandoss, Regional Director-Government Education & Healthcare, Asia South, Sun Microsystems.

Present scenario indicates that worldwide there is a huge demand for skilled IT workers. Bangladesh can grab this opportunity by providing industry standard IT education for all. An estimate shows that IT skilled non-resident Bangladeshis (NRB) can generate over US $1.5 billion in remittances within one decade. Inspired by this fact AIUB starts offering globally accepted IT certification programs from different renowned vendors like Cisco, Microsoft etc. Sun certification program is the recent addition in this trend.

AIUB already installed a unique state-of-the-art Sun Solaris lab, which consists of 40 Sun Ray terminals. These are all Sun thin client architecture. High-end Sun Fire V440 and Sun Fire V250 servers are used to control these terminals. High performance Sun Fire V440 designed for TPC-H submissions at 100 GB running Sybase IQ. Data center class Sun Fire V440 server is an extremely flexible platform for delivering low cost, horizontally scalable services and solutions. Four 1.28 GHz or 1.593 GHz Ultra SPARC IIIi processors, up to 32 GB of memory, four 146 GB Ultra 320 SCSI disks, six PCI slots, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, identity transfer feature, and remote server management capability, the rack-optimized 4U Sun Fire V440 server features an integrated architecture designed to meet a variety of different processing needs.

On the other hand, the Sun Fire V250 server powered by two 1.06 GHz or 1.28 GHz Ultra SPARC IIIi processors offers a reliable and secure two-processor server platform. This server is a feature rich server that comprises up to 8 GB of DDR memory, up to eight hot swappable, 73 GB Ultra SCSI hard drives, six 64-bit PCI slots, four USB ports, Advance Lights Out Manager (ALOM) software, and a System Configuration Card etc. AIUB committed to provide resourceful environment and in this regard, the construction of another lab is underway in order to extend the facilities.

Nursing Studies in Bangladesh AIUB's pursuit for bright future

Nisar Ahmed

In Bangladesh, nursing is a profession that draws little admiration. Everyone realizes the importance of it but ironically very few would dream of studying it as a bachelor course.

AIUB as a premier private university of the country has been in relentless in its effort to promote nursing as a full-fledged degree course. It is in this line of thinking that AIUB has already arranged two crucial seminars with leading thinkers of the country.

So, why is AIUB in pursuit of establishing Nursing as an academic unit? Because nursing is indeed one of the noblest professions in the world ever since Florence Nightingale raised it as an art of caring and nurturing the sick and the weak.

Today, it is a vital component of any form of medical care. The largest group of workers in the health sector is those in the nursing occupation. From the general ward to the operating theater, nursing forms an integral part. This is one of the few domains of work that is almost totally dominated by women.

Nursing duties are manifold and cover a wide range of functions and responsibilities that depend on the level of qualification and the working environment. At the initial level, nurses are required for the bedside care of patients, while at senior level they are required to manage special groups of people like psychiatric, pediatric, intensive care patients etc that require specialized skills. They are also involved in dispensing medication, keeping records of the patient's progress, setting up and operating medical equipment, administration and several other routine chores.

This field is both mentally and physically demanding and nurses are often exposed to health risks from infectious diseases. As such this profession demands long hours of work and duties that incorporate both skill and understanding of patient's needs. Those who come forward to take this up as a career have to be patient, courageous, have a service mentality and at the same time be ready to work extra hours. The nursing profession calls for tremendous patience, responsibility and dedication. The job requires alertness of mind, team spirit, tact, compassion etc. They should have the instinct to help and serve the patient without getting sentimentally attached. Apart from all these, one must have a pleasant smiling face in any situation.

Opportunities
Nursing should not be considered a secondary career move for students unable to get admitted in medical schools. Both professions, although complementary, require different aptitude and temperament. Nursing jobs are an indispensable component of the healthcare industry. Nursing bears the critical responsibility of patients' care and restoring the patients' health. Nursing also necessitates altruistic or selfless service. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that traditionally more women then men have taken up nursing jobs. Today, nursing jobs constitutes the single largest female workforce in the world. Nursing can also prove to be a smart career move. According to American Nurses Association the average staff nurse working in all settings earn $35,212, hospital staff nurses earn $36,618, administrators earn $45,071, the average Clinical Nurse Specialist earns $41,226, nurse practitioners earn $71,000, and the Nurse Anesthetists earn a whopping $113,000. The Department of Health and Human Services or HHS has estimated America's supply of registered nurses at 1.89 million, while the demand is at 2 million, highlighting a nursing shortage of 6%. The nursing shortage is expected to triple to 20% by 2015, and by year 2020, there will be a estimated shortage of 800,000 nurses. In a world, where employment opportunities are becoming scarcer in other fields, nursing jobs are growing exponentially.

Is the shortage an international problem?
Several other countries report problems similar to the United States. The Toronto Star reported in June 2001 that Ontario, Canada, expects to lose 14,000 of its 81,000 nurses due to retirement by 2004. Almost a third of Canada's nurses are over age 50, and only 10 percent are under 30. In December 2000, the World Health Organization reported that 10 years ago Poland was graduating more than 10,000 new nurses annually. That figure has fallen to 3,000. And in Chile, out of 18,000 nurses in the country, only 8,000 are working in the field.

Should Nurses in Bangladesh look for jobs in the international nursing market?.

There are reportedly 22000 registered nurses in the country of which 16000 nurses are in the public sector and about 3000 nurses have gone abroad while the rest are either engaged in private clinics or awaiting Government posts. In case of Bangladesh the general nurse-patient ratio is (1: 13) as against international standard for 1:4). Here the doctor-nurse ratio is 3:1. The standard should be 1:3. With the projected requirement of doctors in the year 2020 to be 62,705; Bangladesh would need almost 180,000 nurses to attain the international level.

What should be done?
This scenario does not permit Bangladesh to consider exporting nurses to other countries. We are not ready yet and the Government does not possess the vision for achieving such goals in the near future. Bangladesh at this point and with present preparation simply cannot afford to take the risk of exporting nurses even to traditional destinations. With the given standard of nursing education, quality of nurse graduates and other institutional and preparatory limitations Bangladesh at this point of time cannot address the demand of the high value addition nursing market of the Europe and North America. The three main obstacles to nurse migration are language; cultural differences and incompetence in qualifications and professional aptitude.

To achieve the objective of enhancing the image of nursing career in Bangladesh the following could be done,

1. Improve nursing capabilities in the six divisional cities by providing nursing schools in those areas.

2. Improve the quality of the nursing services provided in the hospitals and health centers in these divisional headquarters.

3. Change the negative attitudes and perceptions that prevail in the local community towards the nursing profession, through involving the community in seeking solutions for the issues pertaining to the nursing career.

4. Create a core training team that comprises nurses from all parts of Bangladesh, to ensure the sustainability of the efforts aiming at enhancing the nursing sector.

5. Incorporate private medical colleges and private universities to introduce internationally accepted quality nursing education as soon as possible.

This should be a well-conceived and efficiently run health care policy and if implemented properly may bring prosperity to an ailing sector. It also serves a very important need in Bangladesh's health care providers with a clear time frame and precise goals. Although some may question whether the training of nurses is a modern or innovative project for women and development, in the context of Bangladesh (or other cultural contexts where nationals do not go into the nursing profession in large numbers), it most certainly is. There is an ever-rising demand for nurses in hospitals, schools, clinics, public health agencies, and many other establishments throughout the world. Nursing jobs provide the groundwork for many career opportunities and, more importantly, it is an individually and financially gratifying vocation. We should look ahead and be proactive to be ready with our work force to meet the demands of this potential market.

(Nisar Ahmed is a faculty of AIUB)

Stopping brain drain now or never

Amanat Ahmed & Kazi Ahmed Farhan

Every year we see plenty of students from our country secure good results in the both GCE 'O' and 'A' level examinations. If you ask them where they wish to study after completing their high school studies, with no utter surprise, you will find most of them saying they wish to study abroad. Wanting to go abroad is the sign of their high aspirations of moving ahead. These are the jewels of our country. But the sad part is, most of these jewels do not become the part of the country's crown. Rather they are smuggled away.

The students who are quite talented and/or have financial backup usually move outside of the country for further education. They get educated over there and quite remarkably many of them come out with a good result. Now, what happens next? Most of them stay in that foreign land and contribute to that country. This harms us in two ways. The most harmful part is that, the talented brain is getting drained away. The other one is that the much needed capital is also being drained away from a resource scarce country like ours.

I do not blame these individuals. They are doing what is the best for them. I have the opportunity to visit one of the most developed countries in this planet and stayed there for a couple of months. With my experience I should say that it is quite obvious these individuals will never come back. The opportunities are there to shine. If one is enough talented and industrious he/she will definitely prosper.

As students from different educational institution of Bangladesh, what we can do in reversing this trend? First of all, we should uphold the image of our respective institutions. Let us stop talking about lacking. Rather speak high about what we possess. Let others know about the good things about our alma mater. In a nutshell, we should create a positive impression about our institutions everywhere around. We have to uphold the image of our country also. We should champion what we have, not what we do not have.

In doing so, each and every student should joint hands with each other. We must form an effective partnership. We should complement. What we should not do, is to throw mud at each other. We have to become ideal citizens of this country that will make a positive picture all way around.

We are a hugely underdeveloped nation. In order to keep up, we must step up the pace of development. Plenty of talents and brains have already drained away. Our country cannot afford more. In order to use these talents for the benefit of our country, we must start to act right now. Otherwise I am afraid we shall remain 'developing/underdeveloped' forever.

Lastly, I request to those who went abroad in pursuit of higher education to come back to your own country after finishing studies there. Let us join hands together and repay our debts. Let us make her a better place for living and be proud of her.

Md. Lutful Hoque Khan

Are you ready to go through your H.S.C Syllabi again, with much more care than you did before your H.S.C? Are you ready to struggle with at least 6-8 hours of your day studying regularly?

If you are, then welcome to the Faculty of Business Studies of Dhaka University. Thousands of students with a commerce background want to be proud students of FBS, DU. But sadly there are only 840 seats. In Statistics, thirteen students fight for each seat. You have to go through four subjects in your 'GA Unit' exam. These are: Bengali, English, Accounting and Principles of Business. If you are a general student, you have to face problems in English and Accounting. Most of the students have been suffering from weakness in the English section. But win the fear factor. You have to build a strong base of English by learning the basic rules of grammar, gaining a big bank of vocabulary and quick reading and comprehension power. According to Ummey Rumana Haq, who stood 1st in the GA Unit exam in 2002-2003, the accounting questions are very much different from what she read for H.S.C. So, special preparation and thorough learning is necessary.

You have to be ready to go through every line of your Bengali textbook and learn all the basics of Bengali Grammar. In the principles of management section you have the chance of getting full marks if you can go through your textbook thoroughly and keep track of recent news on economy, especially about bank rates, inflation, exchange rates and government policy. If your answer to any questions is incorrect .25 marks will be deducted, so you should not answer those questions whose answer could be wrong. Previous years trend shows that the questions were not tough. So, take heart and go to the exam hall and get over it. This is your chance. Are you ready...?

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