BUET is one of four institutions cooperating within NOMA’s Master programme, ‘MSc-sandwich programme within the petroleum sector in Asia and Africa’. In Bangladesh the petroleum sector is still developing and lacks sufficient skilled human capital.
“For us, participation is not only contributing human resources, but is also creating important academic liaisons,” says Mohammed Tamim, BUET Professor and Bangladeshi petroleum expert.
The country’s petroleum and mineral resources are considered to have huge potential but, because of the acute shortage of human capital, it has so far had difficulties carrying out surveying, as well as exploration and production of these resources. Today the industry is, for the large part, operated and run by people with little knowledge of petroleum engineering. Typically mechanical and chemical engineers fill the gaps.
Handling brain drain
MOHAMMED TAMIM: BUET Professor and Bangladeshi petroleum expert who believes that the NOMA collaboration is creating international academic liaisons.
Professor Tamim, who heads the Petroleum and Mineral Resource Engineering Department (PMRE) of BUET, is happy to see programmes such as NOMA increase the university’s international collaboration within research and development. The aim is that the graduates, who are required to finish the degree within a tight time frame, will serve in the country’s petroleum sector.
PMRE was established through a collaborative project between BUET and the University of Alberta, Canada, in 1985, while academic activities came into effect in 1995. Professor Tamim says that since the department’s inception, it has been observed that students usually do not come back to Bangladesh after completing their degree abroad. According to him, the ‘brain drain’ issue was addressed while designing this NOMA Master programme by joint consensus of all the partner institutions.
Professor Tamim says: “We set certain conditions for enrolment so that students are bound to return home and serve their country for at least two years.
“Even if just 40 per cent of the NOMA students came back to serve their country, it would bring great benefits.”
Since BUET joined NOMA in 2007, six Bangladeshi students have completed their degree at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and the University of Stavanger. One of them has joined a public university in Bangladesh as a teacher and another student is doing his PhD at NTNU. The rest of the students are serving the petroleum field in the private and public sectors.
According to Professor Tamim, cooperation with the Norwegian universities seems to be going smoothly.
“Now that we have been introduced to Norwegian faculties, their research, methodology and data, we can apply the knowledge to our local research projects,” he says.
PMRE has recently initiated an application for petroleum funds from the Norwegian Government, aimed at petroleum engineering students of developing nations.
“In the new proposal we have consolidated the experience from the NOMA programme so that students complete their degree in a tight academic environment and contribute to their country’s own sector,” Professor Tamim says.
The goal of the new programme is to further experiences in international collaboration. It is intended to include a wider syllabus, involving more local resource personnel. Most of the students of PMRE are employed and the new project will have room for part-time students so that their class schedule does not conflict with their working hours.
Wants to create enthusiasm
FARHANA AKTER: The young Bangladeshi teacher of petroleum engineering is convinced that research is crucial for development.
NOMA graduate Farhana Akter is the only female student from Bangladesh who has enrolled in NOMA’s petroleum study programme since its inception. She joined the programme after completing a Bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. It became an ‘eye-opener’.
“Advanced research on petroleum is so neglected in Bangladesh. I would like to create enthusiasm for research among students,” says.
Akter now works as an assistant professor at the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, one of the top public universities in Bangladesh. She joined the institution upon completion of her MSc from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in 2009. Now she aspires to promote advanced research among her students.
Akter says: “As a teacher, I can provide realistic guidelines to my students at the introductory level, because it’s important to pick a career track early on.”
She describes studying in Norway as one of the biggest events in her life. Very few women pursue higher education in Bangladesh and, typically, engineering studies are highly male-dominated. Akter is one of very few women to have achieved an international engineering degree.
“Women are rarely encouraged to leave the country to study. I am lucky that my family raised me against the social customs; I would not have been able to come this far without inspiration and support of them,” she says.
Mohammad Mojammel Huque enrolled in the NOMA MSc programme in 2008, and is now working on his thesis. In the future, Huque would like to do more in-depth research.
He says: “I hope that the new generation of engineers will help the Bangladesh petroleum industry out of dependency on foreign resources.”
BUET has applied to be part of NOMA’s 2010 fourth cohort. InBangladesh in recent years, the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Jessore University of Science and Technology and Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology have also opened their own departments of petroleum studies on bachelor level.