Staff Reporter, Dhaka : The South Asian Regional Conference on State of Higher Education and Future Pathway (SARCHE 2026) will begin on 13 January in Dhaka. The three-day conference will be held at the Hotel Le Méridien Dhaka on 13–15 January 2026.

This conference has been organized under the Higher Education Acceleration and Transformation (HEAT) project, being implemented by the University Grants Commission (UGC) of Bangladesh with funding from the Government of Bangladesh and the World Bank. The conference aims to elevate higher education in Bangladesh to a new height and further strengthen the UGC network among the SAARC member states.

Chief Adviser Dr. Muhammad Yunus will formally inaugurate the conference as the Chief Guest. The Education Adviser Professor Dr. Chowdhury Rafiqul Abrar will attend the ceremony as the Special Guest. Secretary of the Secondary and Higher Education Division of the Ministry of Education Rehana Perven and the Division Director of the World Bank, Bangladesh Jean Pesme will deliver speeches as the Guests of Honour at the event with UGC Chairman Professor Dr. SMA Faiz in the Chair. UGC Member Professor Dr. Mohammad Tanzimuddin Khan will give the address of welcome on the occasion.

The inaugural ceremony will be attended by Advisers of the Interim Government, Special Assistants to the Chief Adviser, Secretaries of various Ministries, UGC Members, Vice-Chancellors from public and private universities, diplomats from different countries and senior officials from Ministries, UGC, HEAT project and international organizations, leaders from industry and commercial organizations and media people. Representatives of UGCs and Higher Education Commissions from SAARC member states, Vice-Chancellors of universities from different countries, educationists and researchers will also participate in this international conference.

A total of 30 international delegates including representatives from the Malaysia, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and United Kingdom and several other countries as well as the senior officials from World Bank will participate in the conference.

The conference aims to strengthen mutual cooperation among the UGC networks, ensure good governance at universities, enhance the quality of education and research, integrate state-of-the-art technologies, expand industry–academia collaboration and transform higher education. Besides, concept papers will be presented followed by exchange of views to identify existing challenges in higher education sector and to determine necessary measures for addressing them in the conference.

A total of eight sessions will be held in the conference. On the first day, two sessions, ‘State of Higher Education in South Asia: Governance, Quality and Inclusiveness,’ and ‘State of Higher Education in South Asia: Research, Innovation, Sustainability and Community Engagement’ will be held.

On the second day, sessions on ‘Emerging Issues in Higher Education: AI Integration, Digital Transformation and Smart Learning Ecosystem; ‘Future Pathway in Higher Education: Enhancing Graduate Employability and Industry-Academia Collaboration; ‘Future Pathway in Higher Education: Cooperation, Collaboration and Networking’; Stakeholders’ Dialogue on Higher Education Transformation; Voice of the Civil Society and ‘Dialogue with Vice-Chancellor: HEAT Project in Perspective’ will be held.

On the last day of the conference a session on ‘Gender in Higher Education: Current Trends and Challenges’ will be conducted and at the end of the conference, the ‘Dhaka Higher Education Declaration’ will be adopted.