Of late, the universities came under severe criticism. But in reality, universities in the country are working relentlessly to imparting knowledge on different disciplines of humanities and science. Of course there are some gap and lapses on the part of the universities for which the universities are not alone responsible. Perhaps we need to bring changes to system and governance.Meanwhile I was going through a new project profile of Reading University, UK called “IMAGINE” aimed at bringing about development in the fields of education, environment, food, health, heritage, culture and creativity, etc. It may be mentioned here that being an alumni of Reading University, I take interest in such projects and I always feel that our home universities should also take such initiatives and the faculties should devote themselves in national and social development activities plus creativity. Here I would like to quote from W M Childs, the first Vice-Chancellor of Reading University (1926-29):
“Universities are living things: they feel, think and do. They are centers of intelligence; they are concerned with ideas; they have outposts upon the frontiers of knowledge; they sometimes do beautiful and remarkable things; they dream and imagine”.
Yours truly,
Professor M Zahidul Haque
Department of Agricultural Extension & Information System
Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University
Dhaka.
