Third language education being launched at 50 universities

University Grants Commission member Professor Dr Abdullah-Al-Mamun has informed that third language education is being launched at 50 universities of the country within December of the current year. He informed that this initiative has been taken as part of implementing the election manifesto of the government to increase the opportunities of higher education and employment of the students at home and abroad.

He said this at the inauguration ceremony of the Confucius Institute of Chittagong University at Bashundhara International Convention City of the capital on Saturday. This programme was organized on the joint initiative of Chittagong University and Yunnan Minzu University of China.

Professor Abdullah-Al-Mamun said the world is gradually becoming interdependent and interconnected. In this situation the opportunity of learning an additional language can make the students skilled in international communication as well as increasing their academic and professional scope.

He said importance has been given to the expansion of third language education including Mandarin, Japanese, German, Korean and Arabic in the election manifesto of 2026. Increasing the educational and employment opportunities of the students is one of the main targets of this. University Grants Commission has taken the initiative of creating the opportunity of learning third language at the university level to implement that commitment.

On the matter of establishing third language centres at the universities he said the universities of all the divisional regions of the country will be brought under this initiative. Institutions of this type including the Confucius Institute of Chittagong University will work as important partners in implementing the third language education activities.

Informing that foreign and local language experts as well as the necessary teaching materials will also be needed in this activity he said University Grants Commission will work closely with the embassies of the concerned countries on this matter. Especially the cooperation of the embassy of China is important as Mandarin is being considered as a priority language.

Highlighting the relation of the internationalization of higher education with language education Professor Abdullah-Al-Mamun said through learning third languages including Mandarin the students can get opportunities like student exchange, scholarships, joint academic programmes, research fellowships, summer schools, international conferences and teacher-researcher exchange. University Grants Commission is also working on creating the opportunity of joint and dual degrees at the universities.

He further said cooperation of this type with the higher education institutions of China can play a role in the internationalization of the universities of Bangladesh. At the same time as the economic relation of Bangladesh with China is expanding in various sectors including trade, production, infrastructure, technology, logistics, engineering and information technology, language knowledge and intercultural skills can create new opportunities for the students in the international workplace. Therefore he commented that it is necessary to consider third language education as part of the broader strategy of increasing employability.