Still no publication house at JU
Jahangirnagar University turns 53 today, but even five decades on, it doesn't have any publication house to preserve and publish thesis papers and books from teachers, PhD and MPhil researchers of the university.
So, students of JU working on research and theses are not getting any benefits, according to teachers and researchers. Students and young researchers also remain uniformed about books and research done in the past.
Khadizatul Kubra, researcher from JU's Anthropology department, said, "A publishing house will encourage me. If I can access archives of previous research in my field, then it will help me and also give me a platform."
JU must plan ahead when establishing a university press, as it can support young researchers by handling their first publications, said Dr Mohammad Tarikul Islam, a professor of JU and distinguished scholar at Oxford, Cambridge, and Harvard universities.
"In Oxford, Cambridge, and Harvard, the entire range and value of research produced by university teachers and researchers is made available to the general public through their respective university presses," he added.
Anu Muhammad, a former teacher of JU, said, "Knowledge should be made available to all. If we can't preserve knowledge and research done by our teachers, it will be a national loss. When we make books and theses public, only then people can judge the quality of work."
Contacted, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education) Prof Mostafa Feeroz indicated two barriers to establishing a publication house.
"First of all, affording a publishing house is financially challenging. Secondly, it'll be difficult to sustain. Rather, we can focus on an online based publishing house," he shared.
"We rarely felt the demand for a publishing house. Books of our teachers are published in different ways from a variety of local publications," he added.
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