Research internship programme attracts youths

Chittagong University Research and Higher Study Society (CURHS) has arranged an internship programme named 'Autumn Research Internship Program 2020' for the students of Chattogram. 120 students, selected from 25 institutions, have done this internship. The interns were supervised by 15 national and international scholars and researchers who instructed interns about the sequence and methodology of research.

Takbir Hossain, the founder of CURHS, described internship as investment for career. "I believe this internship programme will help students in building their confidence to opt for higher studies abroad along with gaining experience in research paper writing and teamwork." He added that the programme will also be crucial in terms of building professional networks.

Engineering, science, biological and life science, business studies, social sciences and law, and multidisciplinary-- these are the fields of research that were offered in this programme. Students from honours third year to master's from any public, private or National University or medical college were allowed to apply for it. Each student could choose maximum two projects from any offered categories. After a thorough selection process, 120 students from 700 applicants were selected from 25 institutions across Chattogram.

Tanjilur Rahman, convenor of this programme, explained their motive. As doing research is not easy in Bangladesh, CURHS aims to make it easier. "We wanted to make a bridge between highly successful researchers and potential students. We have arranged two workshops on learning English and data handling so that interns can write and publish their work in future," he added. Athkia Subat, an executive member of CURHS, on the other hand, believes that this internship programme is going to create a milestone in undergraduate research culture as the students are having the experience of writing a paper early in their career.

"Internship opportunity for 120 students from multi-discipline is first of its kind in Bangladesh. It will open a new avenue of learning for the students," said Dr Adnan Mannan, supervisor of biological and life science field and associate professor of genetic engineering and biotechnology department at CU. Participants are extremely happy as well-- having this opportunity of internship. CU biochemistry and molecular biology student Navid Mahmud, also a participant of the programme exclaimed, "I believe that providing such facilities to the students free of cost will encourage them to become researchers and remove constraints regarding their pursuit of research centric careers."

The programme began on October 04, 2020 after the completion of selection procedures. It ended on November 30 with interns being certified for their participation.

The writer is a third year student of banking and insurance department at Chittagong University. He can be reached at

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