As many as 14 public and private universities signed an addendum to MoUs with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) on Thursday to strengthen academia and professional linkages.
Authorised representatives of 25 departments of 14 public and private universities and institutions participated in the ceremony and signed their respective addenda to the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with ICAB.
The ICAB, Public and Private Universities Signing Ceremony 2026 was held at the ICAB Auditorium in the city.
Organisers at the signing event said that this marks an important step towards strengthening academia-profession linkages and creating greater opportunities for university students and graduates aspiring to pursue professional accountancy education and careers.
Under the enhanced collaboration, ICAB and the participating universities will work together to attract meritorious graduates and postgraduates to the Chartered Accountancy (CA) profession by facilitating Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) and exemptions in relevant papers of the CA programme, where applicable, they added.
This initiative is expected to provide eligible graduates with a faster pathway towards acquiring the professional CA qualification.
The collaboration will create opportunities for partly qualified and qualified ICAB members to pursue university degrees and higher education and research programmes, as appropriate.
This two-way academic and professional engagement is expected to contribute to enhancing the quality of accounting and finance education in both the professional and academic spheres.
The participating institutions will also explore opportunities for joint research, academic collaboration and knowledge exchange, while encouraging greater interaction among students, teachers, accounting professionals and other stakeholders.
The programme was addressed by ICAB President Sabbir Ahmed, Vice President Mohammad Redwanur Rahman, while academicians and teachers from the representative universities also spoke.
The university teachers emphasised that the collaboration is not only on the documents but every aspect of the universities, while some urged for waiver for students which will help more students to join the programme.
Vice president of ICAB said in the past 10 years they signed 25 MoUs with institutions.
ICAB officials and teachers spoke about updating the syllabus of study at universities and that of ICAB.
The ICAB President said industries alleged that fresh graduates are not ready for jobs and are not well equipped, emphasizing the need to update the university curricula.
