Bangladesh University Grants Commission Chairman (Additional Duties) Professor Dr. Muhammad Alamgir. To achieve self-reliance, he urged higher education institutions to ensure education capable of meeting the challenges of the present time.

He said these things in the workshop related to the monitoring and evidence management of the annual performance agreement (APA) activities of the public universities for the fiscal year 2023-2024 and the review and feedback of the draft action plan for the fiscal year 2024-2025. The day-long workshop was organized by the UGC on Tuesday in the auditorium of the Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (KUET).

UGC Secretary Dr. Chaired by Ferdous Zaman, a special guest speech was given by the Vice Chancellor of Kuwait Professor Dr. Mihir Ranjan Halder. In addition, the Vice-Chancellor of Kuwait gave a welcome speech at the workshop. Sobhan Mia. Vice-Chancellor of Islamic University Professor Dr. Mahbubur Rahman highlighted various experiences in the implementation of APA.

Professor Alamgir, convenor of UGC APA Committee, said that to implement the outline of Smart Bangladesh, quality education must be ensured. The country's universities should come forward to reduce foreign dependence through research and innovation. Many industries have been established in the country. But, foreign technology is still being used in their products. He said that the universities in these places should come forward to solve industrial problems by innovating new technologies.

Besides, he suggested to improve the quality of higher education including making the students suitable for the global labor market, updating the curriculum in line with the world, to solve the problem of unemployment in the country. He advised the students to increase their abilities and skills without limiting themselves to just likes, comments and shares with the benefit of the internet.

Additional Director of UGC and Focal Point of APA Bishnu Mallik conducted the workshop, Vice-Chancellor of Khulna Agricultural University Dr. Mohammad Abul Kasem Chowdhury, Director of IQAC, Professor Dr. Narottam Kumar Roy, Registrar Engineer Anisur Rahman Bhuiyan, Comptroller (Acting) Md. Monirul Haque Khan, Additional Director of UGC Jasmine Parveen, Deputy Secretary Md. Asaduzzaman, System Analyst Dwijendra Chandra Das and others participated in the workshop.

Kuwait Vice-Chancellor Professor Mihir Ranjan Halder said that due to the implementation of the APA agreement, work transparency and accountability has increased in universities. Through this, a competitive work environment has been created in higher education institutions and good work has been rewarded. Kutt vowed to do better at APA in the coming fiscal year.

UGC Secretary Dr. Ferdous Zaman said, UGC is investing money and time in implementing APA for qualitative change in higher education. APA's goal is to consider competency in selection, to make qualitative changes in university education, and to set simple, achievable goals.