A dream is coming to reality. Inshallah. A new university in Bangladesh does not attract its people particularly when there are twenty seven universities in the public sector and about fifty five in the private. But founding a science and technology university in a coastal terrain like Noakhali is significant. A newly accrued coastal system may render this university a versatile field station to study the pattern of changes in the seashore and to harness its opportunities.

Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia laid the foundation stone of Noakhali Science and Technology University, NSTU, on 11 October 2003. It is the fourth in the row of twelve such universities the government has decided in 1997 to establish in the twelve erstwhile greater districts where there was no university. Academic activities have already started in the first three -- Patuakhali Science and Technology University, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University at Dinajpur and Moulana Bhashani Science and Technology University at Tangail.

The aim of founding a science and technology university as defined in the project pro-forma is to mould merit into skilled work force and to develop centre of excellence to create and disseminate knowledge. Innovating new technologies and developing the old ones is also one of the R&D objectives of these universities.

Noakhali University of Science and Technology is being built at Sonapur eight kilometer south-west of Maijdee. It has a land area of 100 acres covering 93 Salla and 95 Noakhali Mouza. Its construction work was formally inaugurated on 24 March 2005. Law minister Barrister Moudud Ahmed graced the occasion as the chief guest. Education minister Dr. M Osman Farruk, local MP Mr. Md. Shahjahan, UGC chairman Prof. Dr. M Asaduzzaman and member Prof. Monirul Hoque attended as special guests.

The site of the university is part of the land of a vast Char that stretches on the south to Char Jabbar, Char Bata, Char Wapda and Char Clark before it reaches the feebly flowing Bhulua river far beyond which lyes Hatiya and then the Nijhum Deep. Like the district itself Sonapur has a long history of erosion and accretion caused by the mighty Meghna on the west and the Bay of Bengal on the south.

The landscape here is amazing particularly because of thin population and thin plantation. The area is not fertile as a result of salinity. Trees are recent and not grown as robust as they should be. Tall trees do not mark the horizon. Ponds appear in large numbers but most of them dry up during summer. Poor harvest and low vegetation is related to non-availability of nutrients in the sandy soil. Low or high tech methods including indigenous measures may turn these arid fields to rich farmlands. It will be appropriate for this university to watch these as also many other issues on academic foundations.

Noakhali Science and Technology University will follow a semester system for its four-year undergraduate programme. A student would take 160-172 credit hours. The four-year degree will be completed in eight terms of twenty two weeks each. The first fifteen weeks will be engaged for lectures, lab or fieldworks with a one-week break in the middle. Week-16 and 17 will be used for student reading. Examinations will be held during the next two weeks and the results declared within the remaining three.

Term-1 or January Term will begin on 2 January and end up on 4 June and Term-2 or June Term will run from 5 June to 5 November. The eight-week long vacation will remain effective from 6 November to 1 January when the teachers and students will go on vacation. For a part of the community the first seven weeks of this vacation will be employed to run an intensive but Short Term in which students will repeat a failed course or take a course anew to remain in access of the 162 credit hours. Courses will be run in this Term on demand and supply basis. The number of classes per week for a course here will be doubled. Exams and results will be completed in the last week. During this long vacation admission for January Term will also be finalized.

A course in a Term will be evaluated for 100 marks per credit hour. The evaluation components will be student attendance, 10 percent, quiz-assignment, 20 percent, mid term test after the term break, 20 percent and the term final 50 percent. Three to four books will be prescribed as the texts for any course although the teacher will follow one in Toto. The lecture schedule will show the length of materials to be covered in each lecture. A lecture not given due to a valid reason will be given on a weekend day to makeup. A three credit hour course will have three lectures, deliberations or lab exercises per week. The duration of a lab period will be twice as much of a lecture period and that for a fieldwork will be four times as much. Friday will be the weekly holiday.

A number of subjects were named to be included in the inaugural list in which the prominent ones are Coastal Engineering and Management, Fisheries and Marine Science, Soil Science and Agro Technology, Forestry and Wood technology, Garments and Textile Technology, Computer Science & Telecommunication Engineering, Pharmacy, Nursing Science, Leather and Footwear Technology, Management and Information System and Bachelor of Business Administration.

The University will be a place of equal opportunity for all the students. They will choose and participate in activities to develop their cultural abilities and sportive feats. Job or studentship like teaching and research assistance or lab demonstration may be available for meritorious students. Initially the university will run a research centre to cover the research facilities for the departments. Adaptive research may be carried out through this centre based on some burning issues related to the coastal system.