WMU says it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Bangladesh Marine Academy (BMA). The MoU was signed by Dr. Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry, President of WMU and Dr. Sajid Hussain CEng, Commandant of the Bangladesh Marine Academy. The agreement provides for strengthened cooperation between the two institutions to support the education of maritime leaders. The MoU includes provision for one fellowship to be funded annually by BMA for their faculty to study in the Malmö MSc programme. The MoU also supports maritime and oceans capacity building in Bangladesh as well as exchange of faculty members between the institutions.
BMA is one of four institutions with whom a successful review and evaluation process of the Academy was successfully concluded and approved by the WMU Board of Governors at its 37th Session in May 2019. As a result of this evaluation process, a new collaboration arrangement with BMA has been put in place to provide for continued collaboration on global maritime leadership training and capacity building for the international and Bangladesh maritime community.
Dr. Doumbia-Henry welcomed the strengthened cooperation stating, “WMU is committed to the achievement of the UN SDGs through post-graduate education, research and capacity building in the maritime and ocean fields. Global partnerships in accordance with Goal 17 of the UN SDGs are fundamental to achieving the Global Goals. This MoU with BMA demonstrates WMU’s commitment to impactful capacity building initiatives. It is key to WMU that all MoUs signed are implemented and brought to life with practice-oriented action for sustainable development of maritime and ocean sectors in developing countries.”
Commandant Sajid Hussain stated, “WMU has a high reputation globally and BMA is pleased to continue partnering with the University. We provide Cadets for international ships, not ships of Bangladesh only. To be competitive, we need a global image. The MoU with WMU provides for academic collaboration, including research, that will enhance the image of the Bangladesh Marine Academy. We have already partnered with WMU on ship recycling research, and look forward to identifying further opportunities for collaboration.”