Our university-community bridging projects encourage a closer relationship between Bangladesh universities and their host communities, promoting knowledge transfer and mutual contribution. The underlying concept is that communities should benefit from the knowledge, research findings and skills that universities generate and, in turn, universities should learn from the experiences of their local communities. There is the potential for a reciprocal relationship of knowledge exchange, within which both parties benefit economically, socially, professionally and culturally – this has been termed ‘the knowledge economy’.
We started our ‘Building Bridges’ initiative by undertaking ten university-community pilot projects. There are currently 16 active projects (six of which are run in partnership with ActionAid) involving around 10 higher education institutions in Bangladesh, with inputs from Bradford University, Salford University and The Open University in the UK.
The projects focus mainly on climate change, agriculture, livelihoods, English language teaching, waste management, Biogas production and alternative and renewable energy.
For further details, please contact us.