Research Universities and Academic Renaissance in the Global South: Lessons from Bangladesh (Global Perspectives on Higher Education, 56)

This book explores how, through continuous innovation, solving challenging problems, and transforming outmoded thinking, knowledge opens up limitless opportunities while providing asymmetric strength to those (individuals, institutions, and nations) who possess it. From a global perspective, such asymmetries create dependencies and perpetuate the West’s colonial aspirations, enabling it to exert influence and exact a heavy price. This volume contends that the Global South must develop its own countervailing knowledge assets, best expressed through establishing a few high-quality research universities at the outset, embedded in a carefully nurtured ecosystem and a strong research culture that values curiosity, creativity and commitment. The state of Bangladesh’s universities provides a canvas to examine the challenges facing research in the region that developing nations can address creatively to expedite building a knowledge edifice for self-reliance and national pride.

Syed Saad Andaleeb, Ph.D. (1989), Business Administration, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, is Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Pennsylvania State University (and former Vice Chancellor, BRAC University). His publications blend transactions cost analysis, resource dependence theory, service delivery, and social exchange theory, including a book: Strategic Marketing Management in Asia (Emerald, 2016).