Treasurer | Bangladesh Open University

 

Professor Mostafa Azad Kamal
Treasurer
Bangladesh Open University

Professor Mostafa Azad Kamal joined as the Treasurer of Bangladesh Open University (BOU) on May 5th, 2021. Previously, he was a professor in International and Development Economics and the Dean of the School of Business, BOU. Professor Azad is the first professor of BOU who has been appointed in a statutory position of BOU by the honorable Chancellor of the university. As a proud son of a freedom fighter, Professor Azad is highly motivated and inspired by the spirit of the liberation war of Bangladesh. He always believes that patriotism, innovation, sincerity, and recognition are the key to change! Philosophically, he supports empowerment over traditional educational practices. He believes that traditional education already lost its mainstream usefulness and thence, the focus should be on Empowerment. According to him, a transformation is a must in educational design and practices at all levels to make the graduates ready for 21st century; otherwise, it will be difficult to exploit the benefits from the 4th industrial revolution. He strongly desires to see BOU at the forefront of the 4th Education Revolution.

Professor Azad got an outstanding academic background. He got first divisions in both Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) programs. He won a highly competitive scholarship during his secondary schooling. He stood First with First Class both in Bachelor of Social Science (BSS-Honors) in Economics and Master of Social Science (MSS) programs from the University of Chittagong. He was the faculty first in the Social Science Faculty of the University of Chittagong and for that, he received the book money award from the University Grants Commission of Bangladesh (UGC). Later, he completed his further study in International and Development Economics from the University of Namur, Belgium, with a Distinction grade under the prestigious CUD (Commission Universitaire pour le Développement) scholarship from the Belgic Government. In addition, he got very intensive training on instructional design in ODL from the University of Waterloo, Canada, and also on instructional design in eLearning from Open Polytechnic, New Zealand.

Professor Azad has been engaged in open and distance learning for more than 24 years. His research interests are development economics, eLearning, OER, ODL, and quality assurance in higher education. He teaches economics, statistics, research methods, project management, international business, and quantitative techniques courses in MBA and Commonwealth MBA/MPA programs offered by the School of Business, Bangladesh Open University. He is an instructional designer in eLearning and ODL. He is the innovator and coordinator of the eLearning Project of Bangladesh Open University supported by the Access to Information (A2i), ICT Division. Professor Azad plays a vital role in the University Grants Commission of Bangladesh’s (UGC) initiatives relating to Online learning and Assessment as an expert team member. He was also attached to Bangladesh Accreditation Council (BAC) as an expert member for developing and implementing Bangladesh National Qualifications Framework (BNQF), accreditation standards, and criteria for higher education. Professor Azad was the Director of the eLearning Center of BOU from 2015 to 2016. 

Professor Azad is currently a member of the International Academic Board for Commonwealth Executive MBA and MPA programs, Commonwealth of Learning (COL), Vancouver, Canada. He is also a part-time consultant of Commonwealth of Learning for TEL (Technology-Enabled Learning), ODL (Open and Distance Learning), and OER (Open Educational Resources). Recently, he coordinated the Technology-Enabled Learning Community of Practice (TELCOP) initiative of Commonwealth of Learning. He was the Coordination Focal Point for thee GirlsInspire initiative of COL. He is currently coordinating the COL-BOU project on the Implementation of the Higher Education Integration Model. Professor Azad is a Creative Commons (CC) inspired trainer on OER and Open Licences. He is also a Creative Commons Fellow for Institutional Open Leadership (IOL). Professor Azad is the Country Representative for Creative Commons Bangladesh Chapter and also a member of the 15-member central Membership Committee of Creative Commons, USA. Currently, he is mentoring an OER project under the Open Education for a Better World (OE4BW) initiative of UNESCO and UNESCO Chair in Slovenia on open technologies for Open Educational Resources and Open Learning. 

His works mostly focus on research, awareness building, and policy development relating to OER, Open Education, Open Access, Open Data, Open Science, Open Innovations, and Open Government. Professor Azad promotes open education in Bangladesh by helping the institutions and government develop the OER Policies. He was involved in developing and updating OER Policies in Bangladesh. He helped Bangladesh Open University and Dhaka Ahsania Mission develop their OER Policies and he also worked with the Ministry of Education and Commonwealth of Learning to develop the National OER Policy in Bangladesh. He was also involved in updating the OER Policy at the Open University of Sri Lanka. Recently he was assigned by Commonwealth Educational Media Center for Asia (CEMCA) to develop OER Policies for Tamil Nadu Open University and The Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU), India. Professor Mostafa got experience in coordinating, supporting, and evaluating a number of international and national projects relating to eLearning, OER, ODL, and quality assurance in higher education. 

He attended a number of conferences, seminars, and workshops as keynote speaker, presenter, panelist, or trainer at home and abroad. He traveled to several countries including Singapore, Sri Lanka, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, France, UK, Canada, USA, South Africa, Thailand, Japan, New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Mauritius, Nigeria, India, Portugal, and Slovenia. He got a passion for promoting empowerment-focused technology-enabled education in Bangladesh. Currently, he trying to learn more about cutting-edge technologies such as AI, VR, AR, Chatbot, Deep Learning, the First Principles, eMentorship, etc. He likes to be with nature and follow the nature-synced lifestyle. 

Professor Azad is married to Dr. Sadia Afroze Sultana, Professor in Physics and the former Dean of Open School, Bangladesh Open University. He is the father of two technologically empowered smart sons - Sadin Mostafa Musad and Sazin Mostafa Muntakim. His best sources of inspiration are the love from his Ratnagarva mother Feroza Khatoon and supports from his family. He is always moved by the honesty and patriotic traits of his late father Freedom Fighter Md. Abdul Matin. He is the eldest son of his parents.

Guiding Quotes for Professor Azad:
"এই স্বাধীনতা তখনি আমার কাছে প্রকৃত স্বাধীনতা হয়ে উঠবে, যেদিন বাংলার কৃষক-মজুর ও দুঃখী মানুষের সকল দুঃখের অবসান হবে " - বঙ্গবন্ধু শেখ মুজিবুর রহমান
"Dreams can come true, no matter what your circumstances are. Believe in yourself and
do not allow circumstances to define you"- Frances Ferreira, COL

“Once you stop learning, you start dying”- Albert Einstein

 

 

Officer's List

Name	Designation	Phone/E-mail
Professor Mostafa Azad Kamal	Treasurer	996691114, 09666730730/104, 9666223 (Dhaka Office) [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
Mohammad Zakir Hossain	Deputy Director & PS to Treasurer	09666730730/604 [email protected] [email protected]
Md. Wahiduzzaman Howlader	Assistant Director	09666730730/949 [email protected]