The University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB), the only university from Bangladesh that has been ranked in the global top 100 innovative universities in the 2021 World's Universities with Real Impact (WURI) ranking, organized a series of three online events with celebrated personalities and its noted educators.

Among the five WURI categories, ULAB ranked 27th in Crisis Management, 28th in Entrepreneurial Spirit, and 39th in Ethical Value categories. The university celebrated this achievement through these three exclusive online events on June 26, 28, and 30th.

In the Crisis Management category, ULAB reflected its activities during the Covid-19 pandemic by establishing central and departmental e-learning committees; student well-being; online learning community; learning effectiveness. The inaugural episode of the weeklong celebration started on June 26 with the event titled 'Celebrating WURI Ranking: The Rise of Online Learning'.

The chief guest of the event and the member of UGC, Professor Dr Sazzad Hossain said, "We do not want to create machines, we want to create humans, good citizens, and believers of the country's progress, believers of our visions for 2041 and beyond, who will work for the bright future of our country." He further stated, "ULAB will take a lead to support students and also engage in content making to offer uninterrupted online education and using technology".

Professor Shamsad Mortuza, the acting Vice-Chancellor of ULAB; Arifa Rahman, Head and Associate Professor of Department of English and Humanities (DEH), and Dr Mohammad Tareque Rahman, Director of ULAB's Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) were present as the discussants in the event, also joined by Professor Syed Akhter Hossain, Head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

ULAB's inclusion in the Ethical Value category was acknowledged for its Building Resilient Universities Project (BRUP), conducted by the ULAB's Center for Enterprise and Society (CES). The project created a curriculum to promote diversity, tolerance, and pluralism among university students. While discussing building a resilient university in the second episode "Celebrating WURI Ranking: Building a Resilient University" held on June 28, the chief guest Ambassador (retd.) Tariq A Karim, Director of the Centre for Bay of Bengal Studies at Independent University Bangladesh (IUB), emphasized ethics, moral values, teaching, learning, and societal development.

In his discussion, Ambassador Tariq A Karim provided a deep insight for the students and the general population as a whole, to develop a sense of ethics, moral values, belongingness, pluralism, and tolerance towards the diversity that exists in the social strata.

Professor Jude William R Genilo, Dean of the ULAB's School of Social Science, Professor M Omar Rahman, Executive Director of CHPD, and Sajid Amit, Associate Professor and Director of ULAB's EMBA programme and Director of ULAB's Center for Enterprise and Society (CES) were present as the discussants. Professor Shamsad Mortuza, ULAB's acting Vice-Chancellor made a special appearance at the event.

ULAB's entry in the Entrepreneurial Spirit category was acknowledged based on the Dhaka International Mobile Film Festival (DIMFF) organized by ULAB's Media Studies and Journalism (MSJ) Department. DIMFF's purpose is to inspire and spark creativity in storytelling from people with limited income and resources through the use of mobile devices. In this regard, Amitabh Reza Chowdhury, an eminent filmmaker, Managing Director and Creative Producer of Half Stop Down was the chief guest of the 3rd episode of Weeklong WURI Ranking Celebration, 'Celebrating WURI Ranking: Spark your Creativity'.

In his speech, Amitabh Reza praised and congratulated the creative-minded students of ULAB, saying: "These creative initiatives taken by ULAB show that it will become one of the finest institutions in our country."

Eminent educator Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam from ULAB's Department of English and Humanities, Mohammad Shazzad Hossain and Dr Abdul Kabil Khan, Assistant Professors of MSJ, and the Advisors of DIMFF were present as the discussants in the event. Professor Jude William R. Genilo, Dean of ULAB's School of Social Sciences made a special appearance at the event.

ULAB's world standing was officially cited by the WURI founding director, project leader, and Professor Emeritus of Seoul National University Dr Moon Hwy-Chang in a virtual ceremony held on June 10, 2021, in Seoul, South Korea.

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