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Developing an Alumni Prole for
East West University
A. M. Tanvir Hussain, Asiya Siddica,
and Estiaque Bari
Working Paper No: 20
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East West University Center for Research and Training
East West University
East West University Center for Research and Training
East West University
A/2 Jahurul Islam Avenue, Jahurul Islam City
Aftabnagar, Dhaka-1212, Bangladesh
Phone: 09666775577, Ext. 387
Email: ewucrt@ewubd.edu
Website: www.ewubd.edu
Correct Citation: Hussain, A. M. T., Siddica, A., and Bari, E. 2021. Developing an Alumni
Prole for East West University. EWUCRT Working Paper No 20. Dhaka: East West
University Center for Research and Training.
©East West University Center for Research and Training 2021 Working Paper No 20.
i
East West University Center for Research and Training
East West University Center for Research and Training (EWUCRT) promotes academic and
applied research for creation and dissemination of new knowledge. With this goal the Center
is dedicated to developing the research potentialities of faculty members of the East West
University. In this eort EWUCRT provides generous nancial grants to support faculty research
and training on research methodology, publications of research reports and journals and sharing
of research results with academia, researchers and policy makers. To facilitate dissemination
and exchange of knowledge EWUCRT organizes seminars and symposiums.
ii
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dr. A. M. Tanvir Hussain
Associate Professor
Department of Economics
East West University
Ms. Asiya Siddica
Senior Lecturer
Department of Economics
East West University
Mr. Estiaque Bari
Senior Lecturer
Department of Economics
East West University
iii
Message from East West University Center for
Research and Training (EWUCRT)
Working Paper is a routine publication of EWUCRT. This is a preliminary research report
published after its review by at least two experts in the eld. Thereafter, it is circulated to a
wider audience of readers including students, faculty and specialists in the eld for comments.
EWUCRT earnestly requests the readers of the report to share their comments with us
electronically using e-mail id: ewucrt@ewubd.edu. Your comments will provide valuable
inputs to further improvement of the quality of the report before it is considered for publication
as research monograph by EWUCRT. The views expressed in this report are those of the
author and not necessarily those of the East West University Center for Research and Training
(EWUCRT).
iv
v
Table of contents
Page No
Acknowledgement ix
Abstract xi
Chapter 1 1
Introduction 1
Chapter 2 4
Research Objectives 4
Chapter 3 5
Literature Review 5
Chapter 4 7
EWU Graduate Outlook 7
4.1 Students completing undergraduate degrees 7
4.2 Students completing graduate degrees 8
4.3 Share of graduates by academic programs 8
4.4 Academic performance of graduates by sex 9
4.5 Academic performance of graduates by programs 9
Chapter 5 11
Data Collection Strategies 11
5.1 Strategies adopted for data collection 11
5.2 Chronological overview of data collection process 12
5.3 Institutional cooperation within EWU 15
5.4 Relative effectiveness of data collection strategies 15
5.5 Challenges faced during data collection 18
Chapter 6 19
Data Summary 19
6.1 Responses received by gender 20
6.2 Responses received by faculty 21
6.3 Responses received by enrollment cohorts 22
6.4 Analytical approach in data analysis 23
vi
Chapter 7 25
EWU Alumni: Journey @EWU 25
7.1 The geographical diversity of EWU alumni 25
7.2 Why EWU was the preferred choice for its undergraduate alumni? 28
7.3 Living arrangement during undergraduate studies at EWU 29
7.4 Did active club involvement benefit EWU alumni? 31
7.5 Why EWU was the preferred choice for its graduate alumni? 33
7.6 Break in education before joining EWU for a graduate degree 34
Chapter 8 36
Eectiveness of Academic Programs: Alumni Perception 36
8.1 Perceived effectiveness of FBE undergraduate programs 36
8.2 Perceived effectiveness of FSE undergraduate programs 37
8.3 Perceived effectiveness of FLS undergraduate programs 39
8.4 Perceived effectiveness of FBE graduate programs 40
8.5 Perceived effectiveness of FSE graduate programs 41
8.6 Perceived effectiveness of FLS graduate programs 42
8.7 Perceived usefulness of EWU graduate degree in career progression 43
Chapter 9 45
Job Prole of EWU Alumni 45
9.1 Employment status of undergraduate alumni from FBE 45
9.2 Employment status of undergraduate alumni from FSE 47
9.3 Employment status of undergraduate alumni from FLS 49
9.4 Time needed to find first job for EWU alumni 52
Chapter 10 53
Potential Benets of Alumni Engagement 53
Chapter 11 57
Conclusions and Recommendations 57
11.1 Lessons learned from the data collection process 57
11.2 Undergraduate alumni experiences and future implications for EWU 58
11.3 Perceived effectiveness of EWU programs and key insights 59
11.4 Job market profile of EWU graduates and future discourse 59
11.5 Need for formal alumni networking and institutional involvement 61
References 62
Annex-1 65
Annex-2 67
vii
List of Figures
Page No
Figure 1: Benets for EWU of collecting alumni information 2
Figure 2: Number of students completed undergraduate degrees by passing year 7
Figure 3: Number of students completed graduate degrees by passing year 8
Figure 4: Share of BBA and MBA graduates (%) among all academic programs 9
Figure 5: A look at the data collection strategies used 12
Figure 6: Number of online responses submitted per week 13
Figure 7: Hour-wise distribution of submitted responses 15
Figure 8: Share of undergraduate alumni reached by each strategy (% of total) 16
Figure 9: Share of graduate alumni reached by each strategy (% of total) 17
Figure 10: Percentage distribution of all degrees awarded and responses received 19
Figure 11: Gender-wise distribution of undergraduate alumni 20
Figure 12: Gender-wise distribution of graduate alumni 21
Figure 13: District-wise location of college attended by undergraduate alumni 26
Figure 14: Distribution of alumni from within and outside Dhaka district (by sex) 27
Figure 15: Distribution of alumni from within and outside Dhaka (by sex and by faculty) 27
Figure 16: Reasons for pursuing undergraduate degree at EWU (by cohort, in percentage) 29
Figure 17: Accommodation type for undergraduate alumni (by sex, in percentage) 30
Figure 18: Percentage of alumni actively involved in club activities (by sex) 32
Figure 19: Reasons for pursuing graduate degree at EWU (by cohort, in percentage) 34
Figure 20: Break in education before starting graduate degree at EWU (% of respondents) 35
Figure 21: Perceived usefulness of EWU graduate degree in professional progress 43
Figure 22: Current work status of FBE undergraduate alumni 46
Figure 23: Sectoral decomposition of private services for FBE undergraduate alumni (%) 47
Figure 24: Current work status of FSE undergraduate alumni 48
Figure 25: Sectoral decomposition of private services for FSE undergraduate alumni (%) 49
Figure 26: Current work status of FLS undergraduate alumni 50
Figure 27: Sectoral decomposition of private services for FLS undergraduate alumni (%) 51
Figure 28: Time needed for EWU alumni to nd their rst job (% of responses) 52
Figure 29: Benets for EWU of collecting alumni information 55
viii
List of Tables
Page No
Table 1: Average CGPA of graduate from the EWU by Sex 9
Table 2: Average CGPA of graduate from the EWU by academic program 10
Table 3: Total responses received from undergraduate and graduate alumni 19
Table 4: Gender-wise distribution of all responses received 20
Table 5: Faculty-wise distribution of responses received (undergraduate) 21
Table 6: Faculty-wise distribution of responses received (graduate) 22
Table 7: Cohort-wise distribution of responses received (undergraduate) 23
Table 8: Cohort-wise distribution of responses received (graduate) 23
Table 9: Average CGPA of alumni from within and outside Dhaka (by sex and by faculty) 28
Table 10: Impact of accommodation on the academic performance of alumni 31
Table 11: Active involvement in clubs and undergraduate CGPA 31
Table 12: Club activity and its ecacy in job market 32
Table 13: Break in education before starting graduate degree at EWU 35
Table 14: Perceived eectiveness of FBE undergraduate programs (% of responses) 36
Table 15: FBE alumni responses by sex and by market involvement 37
Table 16: Perceived eectiveness of FSE undergraduate programs (% of responses) 38
Table 17: FSE alumni responses by sex and by market involvement 38
Table 18: Perceived eectiveness of FLS undergraduate programs (% of responses) 39
Table 19: FLS alumni responses by sex and by market involvement 39
Table 20: Perceived eectiveness of FBE graduate programs (% of responses) 40
Table 21: FBE graduate alumni responses by sex and by market involvement 40
Table 22: Perceived eectiveness of FSE graduate programs (% of responses) 41
Table 23: FSE graduate alumni responses by sex and by market involvement 41
Table 24: Perceived eectiveness of FLS graduate programs (% of responses) 42
Table 25: FLS graduate alumni responses by sex and by market involvement 42
Table 26: Percent of Alumni received promotion after graduate degrees by faculty & by sex 44
Table 27: Gender-wise work status of FBE undergraduate alumni 46
Table 28: Gender-wise work status of FSE undergraduate alumni 48
Table 29: Gender-wise work status of FLS undergraduate alumni 50
Table 30: Existing alumni-engagement initiatives at other Bangladeshi Universities 56
Table 31: Responses received from the EWU alumni by undergraduate academic programs 65
Table 32: Responses received from the EWU alumni by graduate academic programs 66
ix
Acknowledgement
We would rst like to express our heartfelt gratitude to Honorable Dr. Mohammed Farashuddin,
Chief Advisor, East West University (EWU), for giving us the opportunity to work on this
valuable and time-relevant research for the university. Sir had originally expressed his strong
interest in a research project of this nature and also provided valuable advice and support in the
course of conducting this research. The authors would also like to express their deep appreciation
to the Center for Research and Training (CRT), EWU, for their generous nancial support for
this research. Especially, we sincerely appreciate the holistic support received from Dr. Raqul
Huda Chaudhury (Chairperson, CRT) throughout the project. We also want to thank Professor
M. M. Shahidul Hassan (Vice Chancellor, EWU) for taking the time to meet with us and discuss
the project in person. We would also like to register our deep appreciation to Professor Salim
Rashid (University Professor, EWU) and to Professor A. K. Enamul Haque (Department of
Economics, EWU) for providing their advice and feedback during all stages of the project,
especially, during questionnaire development and report preparation. A special thank you to
Professor Syed Abul Bashar (Department of Economics, EWU) for providing suggestions in
the course of the study. In addition, we gratefully acknowledge the support received from EWU
Career Counseling Center (CCC), especially from, Mr. Nahid Hassan Khan (Advisor, DSW and
Head, CCC). We would like to take this opportunity also to thank all the EWU ocials, faculty
members, alumni and current students who have helped us with data collection, and shared their
views on the questions examined in this study. We must acknowledge Mr. M. Sayeed Alam
(Assistant Professor, Department of Business Administration, and EWU) for his enthusiastic
cooperation and signicant contribution at various stages of this study. We would also like to
register our appreciation to Mr. Md. Abdul Motin (Senior Software Engineer, ICS, EWU), Mr.
Md. Tareque Musa (ICS ocer, EWU) for their technical support throughout the project. We
would also like to mention the Jobs for EWUians (an informal Facebook platform) for helping
us reach out to a signicant number of EWU alumni. In this context, the authors would also like
to sincerely thank the following EWU alumni: Mr. G M Najmuz Saadat, Mr. Md Sadikul Pial,
Mr. Md. Faisal Ahamed, Mr. Israk Ahmed Shourav, Mr. Muhammad Jamal Hossain, Mr. Touq
Hossain, Mr. Sazid Al Kabir and Ms. Syeda Sadia Haque for their comprehensive assistance.
We also express sincere gratitude to our three research assistants Ms. Farhana Islam Jany, Mr.
Faizan Hossain and Ms. Lam-Yeah-Tuz-Zohora to play their critical role to manage the project.
Lastly, we alone must remain responsible for the views and opinions expressed in this research.
x
xi
ABSTRACT
In 2021, East West University (EWU) entered its 25th year of pursuing excellence in higher
education. To the best of our knowledge, despite admirable performance by a large share of
EWU alumni in their chosen profession, no systematic information is available regarding
current and historical performance of EWU alumni. In this research, we surveyed EWU
alumni and used this information to develop systematic understanding of EWU graduates’ job
market performance. Specically, we explored three broad areas: (i) reaching the alumni, (ii)
developing a comprehensive alumni prole, and (iii) identifying the potential benets of alumni
involvement. A total of 9,329 alumni responses were collected; of these, nearly 74% completed
undergraduate degrees at EWU while the rest were graduate alumni. Wherever appropriate, we
conducted the analysis by faculty to decouple the dierences and nuances among the science,
arts and business faculties. We found that nearly 64% of our undergraduate alumni are involved
in jobs, 7% are involved in businesses, and an additional 12% are currently full-time students
engaged in higher studies. Therefore, around 17% of our undergraduate alumni are currently not
involved in jobs or businesses. We learned that about one in every two undergraduate alumni
seeking employment found a job within the rst three months after graduation. Our results
also indicate that EWU alumni are employed in a wide variety of sectors including newly
emerging sectors, e.g., e-commerce, business process outsourcing, travel and hospitality, etc.
More detailed results and analysis are provided in the report.
xii
1
East West University (EWU), since its inception in 1996, has grown to be one of the top-
ranked private universities of Bangladesh. EWU is one of only eleven Bangladeshi universities
included in the QS Asia Universities Rankings 2021. In 2021, EWU is going to step into its 25th
year of pursuing excellence in higher education. Originally conceived and led by the visionary
Dr. Mohammed Farashuddin, EWU aims to provide quality education at an aordable cost.
Till its 19th Convocation in 2019, a total of 20,376 students have completed their various
academic degrees from EWU among which 12,943 were males and 7,433 were females. In
addition, 14,111and 6,265 students have completed their undergraduate and graduate degrees
respectively.
Universities around the world routinely conduct alumni surveys to collect data and publish
summary statistics on various aspects related to the alumni. Data is collected on, for example,
graduates’ demographic characteristics, average starting salary, job placement across sectors,
job location, time needed to nd the rst job, etc. Understandably, one reason for publicizing
statistics on such performance and achievement is that it builds institutional reputation and
gives competitive advantage in the long run. But this is done also to give future applicants a
clearer picture of their job prospects upon nishing their degrees from a particular institution.
Universities increasingly realize that, in an ever-competitive and information-driven world,
students prefer concrete valuation of their education prospects while making well-informed
admission decisions.
To the best of our knowledge, a large share of EWU alumni is performing more than admirably
in their chosen profession while some have already reached the upper echelons of decision
making in their respective jobs. However, despite these success stories, such claim may often be
considered anecdotal, as no systematic information is available regarding current and historical
performance of EWU alumni. We believe that systematic analysis of alumni performance data
can provide a critical source of empirical validation of the success of EWU. We feel that, in
today’s increasingly competitive and constantly changing market environment, this will help
solidify “the EWU brand” of education. This will, among other benets, ensure EWU to attract
increasingly better students in the near future. The university authority is also currently showing
intent in broadening the range of academic programs and alumni involvement can be useful in
this regard as well.
Chapter 1
Introduction
2
EWU graduates, as is often the case with many universities, move after nishing their degrees
and/or starting new jobs and lose contact with their alma mater over time. Most EWU departments
collect basic contact information from their respective graduates during graduation. However,
this can be considered as a “glass half-full” scenario as this information is not always updated
and analyzed in a systematic manner over time. This means that the university often lacks
knowledge on graduates’ career progression and performance after graduating from EWU
(see Figure 1). To be more specic, no systematic information regarding graduates’ current
employment status, employment type, job performance, and propensity of continuing education
at EWU, etc. has been maintained by the university. Hence, EWU is unable, among other things,
to convincingly make the claim that it deserves credit for maintaining as well as constantly
updating the quality of its academic programs.
In this research project, we aim to conduct an alumni survey to gather career-related information
of EWU graduates. We can then use the collected data to create a prole of EWU graduates that
can help the university to learn from the professional experience of its alumni. We believe this
information can be integrated with existing academic information of the alumni. This will help
the university in lling the gap in knowledge identied above1. We must note that, based on
our discussion with the alumni, there have been several initiatives in the past to foster alumni
networking, engagement and creation of an alumni association. These initiatives have originated
from both the alumni and the university authority. However, they have often lacked a focused
and systematic approach to contacting, collecting and maintaining alumni information. More
importantly, they have largely not been geared towards the kind of statistical data analysis we
have conducted in this research.
1 The university authority has also identied the need for such a project. Please see a letter, dated July 8, 2018, attached where Prof. Dr.
Mohammed Farashuddin (Chief Advisor, EWU) has expressed his interest in and support for this project.
Source: Developed by the authors
Figure 1: Benets for EWU of collecting alumni information
3
The research report is organized as follows. Followed by the introduction, in section 2, we
outline the research objectives. In section 3, we discuss relevant literature, and, in section 4,
we present EWU graduate outlook so far (up to the 19th convocation). We then elaborate on
the data collection strategies in section 5 and provide a summary of collected data in section
6. In sections 7, 8 and 9, we present research ndings on the alumni’s journey at EWU, their
perceived eectiveness of EWU degrees and their job prole. In section 10, we then discuss
our ndings regarding potential benets of alumni engagement for EWU. We conclude by
summarizing our main ndings and relevant recommendations in section 11. In addition, list of
references, annexes and the survey questionnaire are enclosed at the end of the report.
4
In this research, our primary objective is to gather career information from EWU graduates so
that it can be integrated with currently available alumni information to obtain comprehensive
knowledge regarding the performance of the alumni. More specically, within this main
objective, we intend to accomplish the following.
a) Objective 1: Compare dierent methods of reaching out to the alumni such as advertising
in the EWU website, Facebook and LinkedIn, emails, phone calls, in terms of how eective
these are in reaching the maximum number of alumni.
b) Objective 2: Generate descriptive statistics to aid the university in making informed
decisions.
2.1 District-wise decomposition of undergraduate alumni joining EWU
2.2 Reasons for joining EWU for both undergraduate and graduate alumni
2.3 Living arrangement of alumni and its impact on academic performance
2.4 Club participation and its impact on academic and job market performance
2.5 Alumni perception of the eectiveness of their respective EWU degree
2.6 Employment status of alumni and its sector-wise decomposition
c) Objective 3: Explore the rationale behind and identify potential benets of engaging and
collecting data from the alumni based on existing literature.
Chapter 2
Research Objectives
5
It is well established that alumni are key stakeholders in the long-term evolution of any
university. Universities around the world have increasingly realized this fact and focused
more and more on developing fruitful alumni relations (see e.g., Ebert et al. 2015, Gallo 2013,
Moore and Kuol 2007). Literature provides ample evidence on how engaging and maintaining
information on the alumni can be benecial for any higher education institution. Possible benets
of engaging the alumni can be classied in two distinct forms – academic and non-academic
support (Brown and Mazzarol 2009, and Helgesen and Nesset 2007). Such support includes,
for example, alumni donation (Daly 2013), repurchase behavior, association membership,
career and academic mentorship for new graduates (Moore and Kuol 2007 and Aithalet al.
2015), long-term development and sustainability (Gallo 2013) etc. Most universities now have
alumni relations departments and/or oces to initiate and sustain engaging and cooperative
relationships with alumni. In the following, we briey summarize some of the primary areas in
which alumni are usually recognized to be benecial to their alma mater.2
First, universities have long since attempted to track what their alumni have accomplished
upon completion of their academic training (see e.g.,Lambert and Miller 2014, Senekal and
Munro 2019, Volkwein 2010). Publicizing such alumni accomplishments is often a direct
method to empirically establish a university’s achievements, the quality and ecacy of its
academic programs and its long-term reputation. Such endeavors also raise the university’s
visibility and enhance current and future graduates’ employability over time. This type of
alumni performance tracking and reporting also becomes increasingly relevant in the age of
outcome-based education (OBE). Most universities around the world now routinely conduct
alumni surveys to collect data on, among other indicators, graduates’ employment history, job
performance and satisfaction, income, and socioeconomic status, etc.
Second, alumni can help an institution to evaluate the quality, eectiveness and relevance
of its academic programs (see e.g., Cabrera 2005, Lambert and Miller 2014, Soegotoet al.
2018, Volkwein 2010). Alumni are often asked to rate, among others, the eectiveness of the
instruction they received at an institution, how their skills and technical competencies have
developed due to completing a particular degree. Through such feedback, alumni can help a
university in adapting and enhancing its academic curricula in keeping with prevailing market
conditions. Saunders-Smits and de Graa (2012) attempt to evaluate curriculum quality based
on survey of graduates of the Delft University of Technology. In another study, Chi et al. (2012)
2 A detailed overview of this literature is not relevant to the scope of this research; interested readers are requested to look at the relevant
journal articles for more in-depth understanding and analysis.
Chapter 3
Literature Review
6
discuss that alumni networking can be used to support and enhance mentoring programs, online
networking and adapting academic programs to market conditions. Dollinger et al. (2019),
in a large research-intensive Australian university, looks at alumni mentoring programs and
how they impact the participating students and alumni. Wilkerson (2020) conducted a skill
assessment survey with MIS graduates of a northeastern US university to evaluate relative
importance of 104 skill items necessary for MIS-related careers.
Third, a major aspect of alumni engagement is often nancial support from and charitable
donations by alumni, which can be a major source of nancial support for an institution (see e.g.,
Clotfelter 2003, Daly 2013, Fariaet al. 2018, Gallo 2012, and Volkwein 2010). With declining
state funding, alumni contributions are becoming a major source of nancial assistance. Of
course, the scope and viability of receiving alumni support diers across universities and
across countries. Although there is a long and established tradition of alumni giving in US
universities, universities in other countries are also increasingly exploring alumni giving as an
important source of funding. Alumni can also, using their personal and professional networks,
help an institution in exploring potential avenues of funding from national and international
organizations. Understandably, considerable literature exists in the areas of alumni donation
and its determinants (see, e.g., Clotfelter 2003, Faria et al. 2018, Francioniet al. 2020, Hanson
2000, Okunadeet al. 1994, O’Neil and Schenke 2007, Proper 2009).
Lastly, alumni can contribute in various other academic and non-academic channels. For
example, alumni can provide guidance and suggestion for institutional investment in club and
extra-curricular activities for current students. Their experiences as students can often shed light
on areas of future improvement. Alumni can assist in giving directions for potential investment
in research activities and/or evaluate the eectiveness of existing scholarship schemes in
attracting students with genuine nancial need. Alumni can also help the university in student
enrollment, for example, reaching potential students from across the country.
7
In this section, we used existing convocation database to generate and discuss the historical
trend in number of degrees awarded by academic program and by sex.
4.1 Students completing undergraduate degrees
The very rst batch of EWU graduates, consisting of 14 students, completed their undergraduate
degrees in 2000 and this number has steadily increased ever since (see Figure 2). Up to 2005, a
steady linear increase is observed while, from 2005 onward, the rate of increase appears to be
faster. Especially, since 2014, more than 1,000 students graduated from EWU each year. For
example, approximately 1,509 undergraduate students completed their degrees in 2018, which
is the highest number of graduates for the university so far.
Considering gender3composition of these graduates, we also observe a steady increase in the
ratio of female-to-male graduates (Figure 2). For example, the percentage share of female
students who completed their respective undergraduate degrees from EWU has increased from
21% in 2000 to 45% in 2019.
3 Gender and sex will be used interchangeably throughout the remainder of the report (according to the contextual appropriateness of use).
Source: Authors’ Calculation from the EWU Convocation Database (2020)
Figure 2: Number of students completed undergraduate degrees by passing year
Chapter 4
EWU Graduate Outlook
8
4.2 Students completing graduate degrees
In addition, a total of 6,265 students have completed graduate degrees from EWU so far. Like
undergraduate programs, there has been a steady increase in number of graduate alumni. The
share of female students completing their graduate degrees from the EWU is on the rise and, in
2019, it reached as high as 54% (Figure 3).
4.3 Share of graduates by academic programs
We next look at how the combined share of Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Master
of Business Administration (MBA) and Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA)
graduates has evolved over time (see Figure 4). We observe that the share of BBA graduates,
although increasing initially, has steadily declined in recent times (especially since 2011). It is
heartening to see that EWU has been able to decrease reliance on one specic degree program
by periodically opening more diverse departments and programs.
Source: Authors’ Calculation from the EWU Convocation Database (2020)
Figure 3: Number of students completed graduate degrees by passing year
9
4.4 Academic performance of graduates by sex
Next, we look at comparative performance of male and female graduates (see Table 1). We nd
that, on average, female graduates’ CGPA is 0.12 points higher than their male counterparts and
the dierence is statically signicant at the 1% level.
Table 1:Average CGPA of graduate from the EWU by sex
Sex Number of
Students Percent (%) Average
CGPA
Standard
Deviation
Female 7,433 36.48 3.17 0.43
Male 12,943 63.52 3.05 0.43
Overall 20,376 100.00 3.09 0.44
Dierence 0.12***
Source: Authors’ calculation based on data from EWU register’s oce
Note: *** p<0.001, ** p<0.01, * p<0.05
4.5 Academic performance of graduates by programs
In Table 2, we see that students who completed graduate degrees have achieved higher CGPA
than those completing undergraduate degrees. On average, students who completed graduate
degrees from EWU attained 0.21 points higher CGPA than the students who have completed
undergraduate degrees and the dierence is statistically signicant at the 1% level.
Source: Authors’ Calculation from the EWU Convocation Database (2020)
Figure 4: Share of BBA and MBA graduates (%) among all academic programs
10
Table 2: Average CGPA of graduate from the EWU by academic program
Academic
Program
Number of
Students
Percent (%) Average
CGPA
Standard
Deviation
Undergraduate 14,111 69.25 3.03 0.46
Graduate 6,265 30.75 3.24 0.34
Overall 20,376 100.00 3.09 0.44
Dierence 0.21***
Source: Authors’ calculation based on data from EWU register’s oce
Note: *** p<0.001, ** p<0.01, * p<0.05
Further analyses across departments show that, on average, an EWU undergraduate student
takes nearly 14 semesters to complete his/her degree. Although this number is dicult to
evaluate without comparable data from other universities, it may still be of substance for further
analysis in improving academic eciency and operational smoothness across the departments.
11
In this section, we discuss the various communication channels we employed to reach out to
and collect information from EWU alumni. Also, in response to objective 1 of our research,
we suggest the optimal method (or combination of methods) for contacting EWU alumni. We
do this by comparing the relative success of each communication method in reaching out to
the alumni. Tracing and collecting career information on EWU graduates was a challenging
endeavor and required a concerted eort from all relevant departments and oces of the
university. Achieving the project objective called for a systematic and well-thought-out plan
for data collection, storage and subsequent analysis. To begin with, we rst identied and then
tried to reach out to some key alumni gures across dierent batches and departments.
5.1 Strategies adopted for data collection
As originally proposed, we employed a combination of dierent methods to contact as many of
the EWU alumni as possible. Specically, we used (i) phone calls, (ii) emails, (iii) Facebook
posts, (iv) LinkedIn and (v) the EWU website to reach out to the alumni. Figure 5 provides a
schematic overview of the various data collection strategies that we adopted for this research.
We always felt it was necessary to reach out to the maximum number of alumni in order for us
to conduct a comprehensive and insightful analysis of graduates. Realizing the wider use and
convenience at the user end, we collected alumni information using Google Forms through a
structured questionnaire. This section of the report provides an overview of the data collection
process, in terms of the methods employed to contact the alumni, the chronology of events, and
the relative eectiveness of the various communication methods.
Chapter 5
Data Collection Strategies
12
5.2 Chronological overview of data collection process
We now present a chronological overview of the data collection process. To start with, we rst
collected the convocation database of all graduating students (up to the 19th convocation held on
17 February 2020) from the university’s Information and Communication Services (ICS) oce.
This data was collected by department and by year of enrollment. Following several rounds of
review, feedback and testing of the questionnaire, we started collecting data from EWU Alumni
on 29 February 2020. On the rst day, we had circulated an email to a number of EWU Alumni
who were also our direct students and a total of 56 responses were submitted on that day. It was
important for us to reach out to our former students and obtain their views on, e.g., how much
time it took to complete the form, questions they were not comfortable to answer etc., before
circulating the questionnaire to everyone. On the same day, we had also divided the database
proportionately in three parts among our three research assistants hired for the project. The
research assistants were EWU alumni themselves, which later made it convenient for them to
identify with and reach out to other alumni. Figure 6 depicts a chronological overview of the
number of collected responses (by week) and highlights major milestones.
From 1 March 2020, onwards, with the help of our research assistants, we started contacting
alumni through phone calls and emails. We started by sending emails to recent graduates with
the hope that they were more likely to be familiar with us as faculty members. In addition,
we developed a list of current members of the EWU faculty who were alumni themselves and
emailed them seeking cooperation in all possible avenues. In between, the research team had
face-to-face meetings with selected members of the faculty across departments. The criteria for
selecting faculty members were there (i) extent of current and past engagement with students,
Source: Developed by the authors
Figure 5: A look at the data collection strategies used
13
(ii) length of service at EWU, and (iii) presence in and engagement with sites such as Facebook
and LinkedIn. All these strategies helped to get more than 1400 responses by the end of the 1
st
week.
In the second week, with the help of ICS, we uploaded the questionnaire in the ocial university
website. It helped us to generate more interest and gain greater trust among the alumni and
since then we always used this questionnaire link in any subsequent interaction with the
alumni. Meanwhile, we recorded a video message from Professor Dr. Mohammed Farashuddin
(Chief Adviser, EWU) asking the alumnus to wholeheartedly participate in the research by
completing the questionnaire. We also took a schedule from Professor M.M. Shahidul Hassan
(Vice Chancellor, EWU) for making a similar video message. But unfortunately, the university
was closed on March 18, 2020 due to the Covid-19 outbreak and we were unable to make this
video. All these steps helped us to get more than 2,500 responses by the second week of data
collection. Throughout March, we continued sending emails, making phone calls and other
means of communication with the alumni.
However, by the rst week of April, as covid-19 situation worsened, we decided to temporarily
pause our eorts to reach the alumni. For almost eight weeks, we did not put any extra eort to
expedite data collection. But the Google form was still active during this period.
Starting from July, on the fourteenth week, we restarted emails and phone calls. On July 2,
2020, we opened a dedicated Facebook page for this project. A week later, we publicly shared
the recorded video message from Professor Dr. Mohammed Farashuddin. The message from
Farashuddin Sir signicantly increased responses from senior alumni. Meanwhile, we sought
voluntary assistance from a number of EWU alumni and a signicant number of the alumni
also shared Sir’s video message through their personal social media and LinkedIn accounts. At
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Figure 6: Number of online responses submitted per week
14
this stage, we once again received valuable support from the EWU Career Counseling Center
as they promoted our campaign from their ocial Facebook page. In addition, using publicly
available career data in graduates’ LinkedIn accounts, we developed several information graphics
highlighting the current job market portfolio of EWU alumni. Using these graphics, we then ran
both organic and paid promotional campaigns in Facebook and LinkedIn. These promotional
campaigns helped us in generating and sustaining interest about our project among the alumni.
We continued to use dierent strategies to reach out to more alumni till the twenty-rst week
of data collection. Within this period, we conducted ve Focus Group Discussions (FGDs)
and several Key Informant Interviews (KIIs). For the FGDs and the KIIs, we sent an email
requesting alumni feedback and/or comments on the following four pre-specied questions:
nQuestion 1: Your thoughts as a recruiter on the status and capabilities of recent EWU
graduates (relative to current market conditions).
n
Question 2: How do you think EWU programs may be designed to better address present
market demand and what role do you think the alumni can play in achieving that?
nQuestion 3: What strategies may EWU authorities adopt in eectively connecting with
the alumni?
nQuestion 4: What strategies do you think should be adopted in disseminating results
and recommendations from this particular project?
We wanted this study to be as inclusive as possible and for that we provided an opportunity to
the alumni also for sharing their views. However, we did not conduct any quantitative analysis
using information gathered from these FGDs and KIIs. Rather this information helped us to
better explain some of the research ndings that we derived from our collected data.
Lastly, before closing the data collection phase, we ran several promotional campaigns from
our dedicated Facebook page, including hosting a live conversation with selected members of
the alumni. Between the twenty-second and the twenty-fourth week, our team did not put much
eort in project promotion and, as expected, only a few responses were submitted during this
period.
In Figure 7, we present hour-wise distribution of submitted responses both in terms of total
numbers and as percentage of total. From Figure 7, we learn that about 22.4% of all responses
were submitted between 9:00PM–11:59PM (after oce hours) followed by 17.5% between
12:00PM–3:00PM (lunch hour) and 6:00PM–9:00PM (immediately after oce closure in the
evening). In addition, relatively lower share of responses was submitted during before and after
lunch hours. Specically, 14.6% of all responses were submitted between 3:00PM–6:00PM and
12.1% between 9:00AM–11:59AM (in the early business hours). Also, as expected, the lowest
share of responses was collected during late night hours between 12:00AM–3:00AM (only
10%). Overall, we learn that, in similar campaigns to reach EWU alumni in future, it will be
prudent to target the 6:00PM–11:59PM window.
15
5.3 Institutional cooperation within EWU
At the beginning of the project, we had informed all faculty members about the project through
email and had also requested their cooperation in successfully completing the project. Then,
after receiving 5,000 form submissions, we again emailed all faculty members to update them
about our progress. We had also met with most of the Department Chairs and Department
Coordinators in person to seek their kind assistance in promoting the project and gladly note
that we received their unreserved support. In addition, we met with ocials from the EWU
Career Counseling Center (CCC), especially, Mr. Nahid Hassan Khan (Advisor, DSW and
Head, CCC). They had been kind enough to repeatedly share information about this project
through their ocial Facebook page.
5.4 Relative eectiveness of data collection strategies
During survey, we had asked all alumni (both graduate and undergraduate) about how they
came to know of this initiative. They were asked to choose between Facebook, email, phone
call, EWU website, friends, LinkedIn and multiple answers were allowed. Figure 8 and Figure 9
show the relative share (as percentage of total) of undergraduate and graduate alumni reached
by each data collection strategy. For each strategy, we present the information by faculty and
by enrollment cohort. We observed that the most important modes of communication for
undergraduate alumni were (i) email, (ii) Facebook and (iii) friends/colleagues. Further analysis
provides the insight that Facebook is the most eective means to reach Faculty of Business
and Economics alumni followed by emails and then by friends and colleagues. On the other
hand, for the Faculty of Science and Engineering, email is the most eective means to reach
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Figure 7: Hour-wise distribution of submitted responses
16
the alumni followed by Facebook and then by friends and colleagues. However, regardless of
the faculty, we found that the relatively younger group of alumni rst came to know about this
initiative through emails. We also observed signicant numbers of email bounce-backs when
trying to reach the alumni from batches between 1996 and 2006. This issue increased more than
proportionately as we attempted to reach the most senior batches.
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Figure 8: Share of undergraduate alumni reached by each strategy (% of total)
17
In Figure 9, we see that about 43% of the graduate alumni who responded in the survey also
completed their respective undergraduate degrees from EWU. So, to avoid double counting,
we only considered graduate alumni who had completed their undergraduate degrees from
elsewhere. For graduate alumni, we again found that email is the most eective method to
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Note: Alumni who completed undergraduate degrees outside EWU are only included to avoid double counting.
Figure 9: Share of graduate alumni reached by each strategy (% of total)
18
reach them followed by Facebook and then by classmates and friends. Similar to undergraduate
alumni, we faced challenges in reaching graduate alumni from more senior batches due to
signicant email address changes.
Overall, we learned that, for EWU alumni, email is the most eective medium of communication
followed by Facebook. Therefore, allowing EWU alumni to use university email (domain)
even after their graduation may help the authority to reach and keep in touch with the alumni
and vice versa. In addition, sharing information and periodic updates with alumni through a
veried Facebook page will be an important vehicle for EWU to build an active online alumni
community. Updates on, e.g., achievements of current students, alumni and faculty members,
job market opportunities, publishing regular blog posts from current students and alumni etc.,
can be shared in this fashion.
5.5 Challenges faced during data collection
The following outlines the key challenges that we faced during data collection:
nEmail was the most eective means to reach the alumni, but, reaching alumni from
the most senior enrollment cohorts was dicult. We could email about 66% and 95%
of the alumni from before and after 2006 respectively. A signicant number of emails
“bounced-back” when contacting graduates from cohorts of 2006 and earlier.
nFacebook was found to be the second most eective means for reaching out to the
alumni. However, in the absence of a dedicated Facebook page for the alumni, we had
to contact them using several informal Facebook pages. This may have created some
degree of network bias in disseminating the information to dierent cohorts.
nWord-of-mouth communication was found to be the third most eective means for
reaching out to the alumni. However, we found that, in some cases, there was a lack of
trust among the alumni regarding the usefulness of participating in this initiative.
nIn the absence of a formal EWU alumni association, some groups of graduates had
informally taken steps to form such associations. Because, graduates had already shared
information as part of these initiatives in the past, they were confused to share such
information with us again.
nWe felt that graduates were more interested to form an alumni association than to share
information that will only help the university more in creating an alumni prole.
nWe started data collection on March 1, 2020. But, within a month of that, the Covid-19
outbreak created signicant challenges for further data collection. One of the major
challenges was that we could not build the necessary initial rapport with key alumni
as we had to cancel our originally planned meet-and-greet session. Another drawback
was that we could not record a video message from the Honorable Vice Chancellor Sir,
which was initially planned. Although we did collect responses from about 48% of the
alumni, we feel that our reach would have been much better in the absence of these
initial hurdles.
19
This section presents statistical summary of the data that we collected from the alumni.
Specically, we look at our sample distribution by sex, by faculty and by enrollment cohort. A
total of 20,376 students have graduated from EWU till 19th convocation and we have received
responses from 9,329 of them (nearly 46%). Of these received responses, 6,893 were from
undergraduate and 2,436 from graduate alumni. Among the graduate alumni who responded,
nearly 43% had also completed their undergraduate degree from EWU (see Table 3). The
percentage of responses received in our project maintains a similar proportion to total EWU
alumni by academic programs (see Figure 10).
Table 3: Total responses received from undergraduate and graduate alumni
Academic Degree Programs Alumni
Responded
Percent
(%)
Total
Degrees
Awarded
% Share of
Response
Undergraduate 6,893 - 14,111 48.8
Graduate 2,436 -6,265 38.9
Alumni with EWU undergraduate degrees 1,042 42.8 - -
Alumni with only graduate degrees 1,394 57.2 - -
All 9,329 -20,376 45.8
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Figure 10: Percentage distribution of total degrees awarded and responses received
Chapter 6
Data Summary
20
6.1 Responses received by gender
Of the total 9,329 responses received, nearly 68% and 32% were respectively from male and
female alumni (see Table 4) regardless of the degree programs.
Table 4: Gender-wise diribution of all responses received
Academic Program Undergraduate Percent (%) Graduate Percent (%) Total Percent (%)
Female 2,182 31.7 775 31.8 2,957 31.7
Male 4,711 68.3 1,661 68.2 6,372 68.3
All 6,893 100.0 2,436 100.0 9,329 100.0
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
To be specic, the overall male-to-female ratio of undergraduate alumni at EWU so far is 64:36.
Among the responses received, the male-to-female ratio is found to be 68:32 (see Figure 11).
On the other hand, the overall male-to-female ratio of graduate alumni at EWU so far is 63:37
(See Figure 12). Among responses received the male-to-female alumni ratio is found to be
68:32 at the graduate level as well. It means the male-to-female ratio that we have received
from alumni responses are closely in proportion to its true population by sex.
Figure 11: Gender-wise distribution of undergraduate alumni
Source: Developed by the authors
21
6.2 Responses received by faculty
A total of 6,893 EWU undergraduate alumni submitted their responses. Out of these responses
around 58.2% alumni belong to the Faculty of Business and Economics (FBE). Correspondingly,
34.6% of the alumni who responded were from the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE)
and 7.3% were from the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (FLS) (See Table 5).
In terms of the variety of degrees awarded, a major share of our responses came from BBA
graduates (52.1%), followed by Bachelor of Pharmacy (10.6%), B.Sc. in Computer Science
and Engineering (9.52%), B.Sc. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering (7.24%), BSS in
Economics (6.01%), Bachelor of Arts in English (5.19%) and the reminder by other departments
(see Annex Table 31). In most cases, the relative share of responses submitted by graduates of
various departments closely matched their actual proportion in the overall graduation statistics
(see annex Table 32).
Table 5: Faculty-wise diribution of responses received (undergraduate)
Faculty Name Alumni
Responded %Total Degrees
Awarded %
Faculty of Science & Engineering 2,382 34.6 4,693 33.3
Faculty of Business & Economics 4,008 58.2 8,204 58.1
Faculty of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences 503 7.3 1,214 8.6
All 6,893 100.0 14,111 100.0
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Figure 12: Gender-wise distribution of graduate alumni
Source: Developed by the authors
22
A total of 2,436 graduate alumni also submitted their responses. Out of these, around 78%
were from FBE, 12.2% from FSE and 10.8% from FLS (see Table 6). In terms of the variety
of degrees awarded, most graduate alumni responses were received from MBA graduates
(49.43%), followed by EMBA (14.12%), MDS (7.68%), MPHR (7.47%), MSECO (5.05%)
and the reminder by other graduates (see annex Table 32). At the graduate level, in case of a
few degree programs, the proportion of responses received deviated from their proportion in
the overall population of EWU graduate alumni (see annex Table 32). From Table 6, we also
nd that our responses received closely matched that of the total number of degrees awarded by
faculty and by academic programs.
Table 6: Faculty-wise distribution of responses received (graduate)
Faculty Name Alumni
Responded %Total Degrees
Awarded %
Faculty of Science & Engineering 317 13.0 766 12.2
Faculty of Business & Economics 1,917 78.7 4,823 77.0
Faculty of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences 202 8.3 676 10.8
All 2,436 100.0 6,265 100.0
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
6.3 Responses received by enrollment cohorts
The rst batch of undergraduate students enrolled at EWU in 1996. Over these last twenty odd
years, major structural shifts have occurred in the economy and, in keeping with that, EWU has
also updated and redesigned its academic programs, administrative procedures and facilities
and infrastructure. Thus, we expected to nd a variation in responses between alumni from
relatively earlier and those from more recent batches. In order to adequately capture this variation
in responses over time, we divided the undergraduate alumni in four enrollment cohorts: 1996–
2001, 2002–2006, 2007–2011 and 2012–2016. As we have complete information on EWU
alumni for 21 years, and as only 20 students enrolled in 1996, the rst cohort considers graduates
from six years (rather than the usual ve). Similarly, for graduate alumni, we dened the rst
cohort as 1999–2005. The other graduate alumni cohorts are identical to the undergraduate
ones.
Table 7 shows that, despite several strategies adopted, reaching the alumni from the most senior
enrollment cohorts was a challenging task. We found that only 2% of overall undergraduate
alumni responses were submitted by the 1996–2001 cohort, followed by 11% responses from
the 2002–2006 cohort. We found similar pattern for graduate alumni as well (See Table 8); note
that only about 4.5% of the graduate responses received came from the 1999–2005 cohort. It
revealed that reaching out to alumni who enrolled at EWU prior to 2007 was quite challenging
for us and may require alternative strategies in future such initiatives. We found that email
addresses of a signicant majority of alumni from the rst two cohorts were no longer valid and
this was a key impediment for us in reaching these alumni.
23
Table 7: Cohort-wise distribution of responses received (undergraduate)
Batch Total Degrees
Awarded %Alumni
Responded %
1996-2001 1,026 7.3 137 2.0
2002-2006 3,318 23.7 756 11.0
2007-2011 4,855 34.7 2,246 32.6
2012-2016 4,812 34.3 3,750 54.4
All 14,011 100.0 6,889 100.0
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Table 8: Cohort-wise distribution of responses received (graduate)
Batch Alumni
Responded %Alumni
Responded %
1999-2005 905 14.4 109 4.5
2006-2010 2,020 32.2 534 22.1
2011-2015 2,449 39.1 928 38.5
2016-2020 891 14.2 841 34.9
All 6,265 100.0 2,412 100.0
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
6.4 Analytical approach in data analysis
Based on the data presented above, in most cases, we generate descriptive statistics in the
upcoming sections. However, in some cases, based on applicability, we have also tested relevant
hypothesis and qualied the test results by the analytical framework of the p-test. The null
hypotheses tested in chapters 7 and 8 are listed below.
nTable 9: Location of college degree did not aect academic performance (i.e., CGPA)
by faculty
nTable 10: living arrangement while pursuing an undergraduate degree at EWU did not
aect academic performance (i.e., CGPA)
nTable 11: active participation in club activities at EWU did not aect academic
performance (i.e., CGPA)
nTable 12: active participation in club activities at EWU did not inuence the extent of
job market engagement, involvement in businesses and in pursuing higher education by
gender
24
nTables 15, 17 and 19: perceived eectiveness responses of undergraduate alumni (to
each indicator separately) are not inuenced by their faculty, by sex and by current
status of market involvement
nTables 21, 23 and 25: perceived eectiveness responses of graduate alumni (to each
indicator separately) are not inuenced by their faculty, by sex and by current status of
market involvement
nTable 26: graduate degree is not supportive, either partially or fully, of career progression
for the alumni
25
In this section, we will discuss our research ndings related to where undergraduate alumni
have usually come from in the past, and if that had any impact on their academic performance
at EWU. We will also explore certain aspects of their time spent studying at EWU, specically,
we will look at their (i) reasons for choosing EWU, (ii) living arrangement while studying at
EWU, and (iii) extent of club activities and involvement. In addition, for graduate alumni, we
will present research ndings on their (i) reasons for choosing EWU, and (ii) break in education
before joining EWU. Our research ndings in this section will address all of objective 2 except
2.5 and 2.6.
7.1 The geographical diversity of EWU alumni
Since its inception in 1996 the main motto of EWU was to promote quality higher education at
aordable price. From one of the pioneer private universities, it has gradually become one of
the leading universities of Bangladesh. EWU provides several needs, merit and performance-
based scholarships to its students. All these have helped EWU to get students from all over the
country and that has always been a major claim from the university authority.
In order to understand what percentage of our undergraduate alumni joined EWU after
completing college (or equivalent degrees) from districts outside Dhaka, we collected their
college graduation information. Out of the total number of undergraduate degrees awarded,
we have received responses from around 48% of them. Based on this sample data, in Figure
13, we show the percentage of undergraduate alumni for each district of Bangladesh where we
found representation from all districts. We observed that one out of every three alumni joined
EWU from outside Dhaka. In addition, Figure 14, compares the gender-wise distribution of
undergraduate alumni between those coming from within and those from outside Dhaka. More
specically, one out of every ve female alumni and three out of every ve male alumni joined
EWU after completing college graduation from institutions located outside Dhaka district.
Chapter 7
EWU Alumni: Journey @EWU
26
Source: Developed by the authors
Figure 13: District-wise location of college attended by undergraduate alumni
27
Figure 15 compares the percentage distribution of alumni coming from within and outside Dhaka
based on sex and on faculty. We see that nearly 46% and 24% of male and female undergraduate
alumni of FSE completed college graduation from outside Dhaka. The corresponding male-
female share of alumni for FBE was 32% and 16% and for FLS, it was 46% male and 19%
female. Based on the above, we can conclude that a signicant share of the alumni joined FSE
after completing graduation from institutions located outside Dhaka.
In Table 9, we compare academic performance (CGPA) of alumni coming from within and
outside of Dhaka by sex and by faculty. We found that the academic record of female alumni
is relatively better than male and it is true regardless of the location of their college degree and
faculty. However, we found that location of college degree has statistically signicant inuence
on the academic performance of both male and female alumni of FSE. On the other hand, location
of college degree doesn’t have any statistically signicant impact on the academic performance
of alumni from FBE and FLS. We feel that it perhaps indicates the relative importance of
prerequisite courses at the university level for weaker students, especially, in case of FSE.
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Figure 14: Distribution of alumni from within and outside Dhaka District (by sex)
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Figure 15: Distribution of alumni from within and outside Dhaka (by sex and by faculty)
28
Table 9: Average CGPA of alumni from within and outside Dhaka (by sex and by faculty)
Location
of College
Graduation
Faculty of Science
& Engineering
Faculty of Business &
Economics
Faculty of Liberal Arts
& Social Sciences
Female Male Female Male Female Male
From Dhaka
district 3.16 3.00 3.21 3.05 3.16 3.07
From rest of
the country 3.03 2.94 3.20 3.03 3.15 3.05
Dierence 0.13** 0.06* 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.02
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Note: *** p<0.001, ** p<0.01, * p<0.05
7.2 Why EWU was the preferred choice for its undergraduate alumni?
We explore the factors behind the graduates choosing to pursue their undergraduate degrees at
EWU. During our survey we had asked the question “what were the factors influenced them
to pursue their undergraduate degree from the EWU?” and multiple responses were allowed.
Figure 16 shows our research ndings in this area by faculty and by enrollment cohort. We nd
that, regardless of the cohort and the faculty, in around 70% of the cases, respondents stated
academic reputation as the strongest contributor towards their decision to join EWU. This was
followed by favorable tuition fee and quality of faculty members and scholarship opportunities
(see Figure 16). Besides, the existence of a permanent campus and location or distance from
their residence also inuenced their decision to study at EWU, especially, for the more recent
alumni cohorts. In particular, in 30% to 40% cases, alumni from younger cohorts mentioned that
permanent campus and locational advantage of EWU were major contributory factors behind
their decision to study at EWU. In addition, a few stated uniqueness of degree program as one
of the reasons behind their preference for EWU.
29
7.3 Living arrangement during undergraduate studies at EWU
As we have already stated, around one-third of our undergraduate alumni joined EWU after
completing college or equivalent graduation from locations outside Dhaka and 20% of them
was female. As the number of students is growing at EWU, we felt that, for future discourse,
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Figure 16: Reasons for pursuing undergraduate degree at EWU (by cohort, in percentage)
30
it would be useful to understand our sample graduates’ living arrangement and if that had any
impact on their academic performance.
Figure 17 shows that nearly 70% of the 6,893 undergraduate alumni stayed with their core
family while 6% stayed with their relatives. That leaves 24% of the alumni, who either stayed
in a shared apartment or mess or rented house. Furthermore, 10% of all female alumni stayed in
a shared apartment or mess and 4% with their relatives. In case of males, 30% of them stayed
in a shared apartment or mess and 7% with their relatives.
Moreover, Table 10 shows that nearly 60% of the alumni coming from outside Dhaka stayed
in shared apartment or mess while 14% with their relatives. We also found that alumni who
stayed in shared apartment or mess have relatively less CGPA compared to those who stayed
with their core family, and it is statistically signicant at the 1% level. Although, it does not
necessarily mean that the environment of the accommodation may be responsible for this
CGPA gap, but this issue can denitely be further explored in future. Currently, EWU hosts
around eight thousand undergraduate students and if 30% of them are either sharing hostels,
apartments, messes or relatives’ houses, this number itself should warrant some attention from
the university authority. In this regard, EWU may look into the possibilities of developing
institutional arrangements with nearby private hostels/housing facilities. This can help facilitate
more convenient accommodation for students as well as ensure better security, especially, for
female students.
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Figure 17: Accommodation type for undergraduate alumni (by sex, in percentage)
With family With relatives Mess/shared apartment
31
Table 10: Impact of accommodation on the academic performance of alumni
Accommodation
District Location of College Degree
Average CGPA
Dhaka
(% of Alumni)
Outside Dhaka
(% of Alumni)
With family 90.2 27.2 3.09
With relatives 2.8 13.5 3.06
Mess/shared
apartment 7.0 59.3 3.00**
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Note 1: We did not nd any statistically signicant dierence in results by faculty
Note 2: *** p<0.001, ** p<0.01, * p<0.05
7.4 Did active club involvement benet EWU Alumni?
We know that participating in club activities at the university level is pivotal for developing
communication, management and leadership skills among students. It is widely believed that
active involvement in club activities helps students to grow leadership skills, improve their
inter-personal communication skills, develop networks for future and eventually contributes to
better performance at their chosen workplace. There is also the belief that too much involvement
in club activities may cost students in terms of CGPA. However, club involvement is an extra-
curricular activity and one may or may not join and actively participate in it. Currently, there
are eighteen dierent student clubs in operation at EWU.
In our research, we want to learn if there is any statistically signicant CGPA dierence, in
our sample, between alumni who did and did not participate in club activities. We had asked
the question “While studying at EWU, how many clubs and/or student organizations were you
actively involved in?”. We dened active involvement as a student having been involved in
organizing and/or participating in at least three events/programs for a particular club. In answer
to this question, nearly 58% of the respondents mentioned that they were actively involved in
club activities while 42% stated no active participation in club activities.(See Table 11)
Table 11: Active involvement in clubs and undergraduate CGPA
Active Club
Involvement
Number of
Alumni
Alumni
(%)
Average
CGPA
No 2,771 42.3 3.06
Yes 3,777 57.7 3.07
All 6,548 100.0 3.07
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Note: *** p<0.001, ** p<0.01, * p<0.05
32
Our results suggest that (a) active involvement in clubs has no statistically signicant eect on
undergraduates’ academic performance (see Table 12) and (b) active club involvement among
male alumni was higher than female alumni regardless of the faculty they belonged to (see
Figure 18). We have also analyzed club involvement by enrollment cohorts but did not receive
any new insight.
Lastly, in Table 12, we found that undergraduate alumni with active club participation later
demonstrated certain patterns compared to those with no active club involvement. Specically,
(i) they were more involved in their jobs and managed to get their respective rst job in a
relatively shorter span of time, (ii) relatively fewer percentage of them pursued further higher
studies and (iii) relatively smaller percentage of them remained not involved in any market
activity. All three characteristics were found to be statistically signicant and to be true
irrespective of gender and enrollment cohort.
Table 12: Club activity and its ecacy in job market
% of Female Alumni % of Male Alumni
Work Status
No Active
Club
Involvement
Active Club
Involvement
No Club
Involvement
Active Club
Involvement
Engaged in a Job 54.8 64.4*** 71.6 78.4***
Less than 3 months 20.7 29.7*** 30.4 41.6***
Between 3 to 6 months 13.1 14.2 17. 7 16.5
Between 6 to 12 months 10.7 11.6 13.2 12.1
More than a year 10.4 8.9 10.4 8.3
Involved in Business 2.4 1.6 5.4 4.2
Pursued(ing) higher studies 19.1* 16.0 12.1* 8.7
Currently not in jobs 23.7** 18.0 10.8 8.7
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Note: *** p<0.001, ** p<0.01, * p<0.05
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Figure 18: Percentage of alumni actively involved in club activities (by sex)
33
7.5 Why EWU was the preferred choice for its graduate Alumni?
We have received responses from 2.436 graduate alumni and 43% of them completed their
respective undergraduate degrees from EWU as well. Figure 19 illustrates factors that inuenced
students’ decisions to pursue graduate degrees at EWU by faculty and by enrollment cohorts. We
nd that, regardless of faculty and cohort, alumni responded that academic reputation had the
strongest inuence over their decision to pursue a graduate degree at EWU. However, among the
relatively younger alumni cohorts, this signicance of academic reputation decreased a little. In
addition, a large number of respondents mentioned location and distance from their workplace
or residence were two other major factors. Additional relevant factors included favorable tuition
fee, quality of faculty members, suitable class timing, scholarship opportunities, availability
of unique degree programs and reminiscence (specically in case of students continuing at
EWU). As many had to rush to attend the class in the evenings after oce, quite expectedly,
favorable class timing and location appeared as major contributory factors. In addition, quality
of faculty members was relatively more signicant for alumni from the Faculty of Science and
Engineering and the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences than alumni from the Faculty
of Business and Economics.
34
7.6 Break in education before joining EWU for a graduate Degree
In this section, we only consider graduate alumni (2,436 students) and divide them into two
groups. Group 1 consists of students with undergraduate degrees from EWU (1,042 students)
and group 2 consists of students with undergraduate degrees from outside EWU (1,394 students).
Table 13 presents our research results concerning breaks in education for the two groups.
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Figure 19: Reasons for pursuing graduate degree at EWU (by cohort, in percentage)
35
Table 13: Break in education before starting graduate degree at EWU
Study Break Undergraduate
Degree from EWU
Undergraduate
Degree from Outside
EWU
All
Frequency % Frequency % Frequency %
No 324 31.1 178 12.8 502 20.6
less than 3 months 77 7.4 57 4.1 134 5.5
between 3 to 6 months 191 18.3 125 9.0 316 13.0
between 6 months to 1 year 166 15.9 151 10.8 317 13.0
between 1 year and 3 years 237 22.7 535 38.4 772 31.7
More than 3 years 47 4.5 348 25.0 395 16.2
Total 1,042 100.0 1,394 100.0 2,436 100.0
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
We nd that nearly 31% of the respondents in group 1 admitted themselves to graduate programs
immediately after the completion of undergraduate degrees (no break in education). In contrast,
only 12.8% of group 2 respondents admitted themselves to graduate programs immediately
after completing their undergraduate degrees. On the other hand, only 4.5% of group 1 enrolled
themselves in a EWU graduate program after more than 3 years while the corresponding number
for group 2 is 25% (see Table 13). It suggests that alumni who only attend EWU for graduate
degrees tend to have longer breaks in education relative to those who have pursued both degrees
at EWU(Figure 20).
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Figure 20: Break in education before starting graduate degree at EWU (% of respondents)
More than 3 years
Between 1 year and 3 years
Between 6 months to 1 year
Between 3 to 6 months
Less than 3 months
No
36
In this section, we present research ndings regarding alumni perception of the eectiveness
of their academic degree from EWU, which will fulll our research objective 2.5. In our
survey, we had asked the respondents to rate the eectiveness of their academic degrees over
seven indicators: (i) developing knowledge, (ii) improving communication skills/techniques,
(iii) improving writing ability, (iv) creating adaptability, (v) improving analytical ability, (vi)
improving computer skills and (vii) relevance with their professional work. They were given four
options to choose from (i) not eective; (ii) satisfactory; (iii) eective and (iv) highly eective.
In the following, we analyzed alumni responses to perception questions by academic programs
(undergraduate and graduate), by faculty and by enrollment cohorts (as dened in the earlier
section). However, note that one should not compare the results of the aforementioned indicators
across faculty. For example, ‘improving analytical ability’ perceived by an FBE is likely to
dier from that of an FSE or FLS alumnus. It is also more or less true for most of the indicators
that we have used to obtain their individual perception on. In addition, we decoupled the impact
of CGPA and job market involvement on alumni responses.
8.1 Perceived eectiveness of FBE undergraduate programs
In this subsection, we only consider responses from undergraduate alumni. Table 14 presents
our research ndings on the alumni perception of their FBE degree by enrollment cohort. We
found that alumni from most senior batches have found their academic degrees to be more
eective compared to alumni from relatively younger cohorts. This pattern is valid in terms of
the indicators of (i) developing knowledge, (ii) improving communication skills, (iii) improving
writing ability, and (iv) improving analytical ability. In general, however, most responses from
alumni highlighted that there was scope for further improvement in case of some indicators,
especially, analytical ability and computer skills. Also, roughly 50% of the FBE alumni,
across all cohorts, found their academic training to be relevant for their respective professional
engagement.
Table 14: Perceived eectiveness of FBE undergraduate programs (% of responses)
Eective/Highly Eective 1996-2001 2002-2006 2007-2011 2012-2016
Developing knowledge 88 90 80 74
Improving communication skills 89 84 73 69
Improving writing ability 84 78 72 68
Creating adaptability 87 82 77 74
Improving analytical ability 75 74 65 58
Improving computer skills 81 72 68 62
Relevance with professional work 78 72 60 52
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Chapter 8
Eectiveness of Academic Programs: Alumni Perception
37
Table 15 shows that female alumni, compared to males, perceived the program to be more
eective in terms of two of the criteria – creating adaptability and relevance to professional
work. And, for both criteria, we found female responses to be statistically signicantly dierent
than those of males. On the other hand, alumni who were involved in jobs or any kind of market
activities, not surprisingly, found degree programs to be more eective across all indicators
than their peers who were not involved in such activities.
Table 15: FBE alumni responses by sex and by market involvement
Index value+
Eectiveness of Undergraduate
Business & Economics Degrees
Female
Alumni
Male
Alumni
Alumni
with Job
Alumni
without Job
Developing knowledge 0.78 0.78 0.80*** 0.70
Improving communication skills 0.73 0.73 0.75*** 0.62
Improving writing ability 0.74 0.70 0.72*** 0.63
Creating adaptability 0.78 0.75 0.77* 0.71
Improving analytical ability 0.63 0.62 0.64** 0.56
Improving computer skills 0.66 0.66 0.66* 0.60
Relevance with professional work 0.63* 0.57 n/a n/a
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020;
Note 1: +Higher index value indicates higher eectiveness;
Note 2: *** p<0.001, ** p<0.01, * p<0.05; n/a=not applicable
8.2 Perceived eectiveness of FSE undergraduate programs
Table 16 presents our research ndings on the alumni perception of their FSE degree by
enrollment cohort. Similar to the FBE, the FSE alumni from most senior batches also perceived
their academic degrees to be more eective than alumni from relatively younger batches across
all indicators. However, in general, responses from FSE alumni highlights that there is scope
for further improvement in case of certain indicators – improving communication, writing and
analytical ability. Also, roughly 50% of the alumni from younger cohorts (2007 onwards) found
their academic training to be relevant to their respective professional engagement, which was
more than 70% for alumni from relatively senior cohorts (1996–2001 and 2002–2006).
38
Table 16: Perceived eectiveness of FSE undergraduate programs (% of responses)
Eective/Highly Eective 1996-2001 2002-2006 2007-2011 2012-2016
Developing knowledge 86 83 72 69
Improving communication skills 79 79 66 64
Improving writing ability 78 74 69 67
Creating adaptability 79 78 70 70
Improving analytical ability 72 74 64 59
Improving computer skills 88 85 72 71
Relevance with professional work 76 70 53 52
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Table 17 shows that female alumni, compared to males, perceived the program to be more
eective in terms of ve of the criteria – developing knowledge, improving communication
skills, improving writing ability, creating adaptability and relevance to professional work. And,
for all of these ve criteria, we found female responses to be statistically signicantly dierent
than those of males. On the other hand, in case of alumni involved in jobs and/or market activities,
there were statistically signicant dierences for following indicators: (i) improving writing
ability, (ii) creating adaptability and (iii) improving computer skills. It highlights that, for FSE
alumni, computer skills and competencies are minimum prerequisites, but better writing ability
and adaptability improves their job performance.
Table 17: FSE alumni responses by sex and by market involvement
Index value+
Eectiveness of Undergraduate
Science & Engineering Degrees
Female
Alumni
Male
Alumni
Alumni
with Job
Alumni
without Job
Developing knowledge 0.77** 0.69 0.72 0.70
Improving communication skills 0.69* 0.65 0.66 0.64
Improving writing ability 0.74** 0.66 0.70* 0.65
Creating adaptability 0.75* 0.69 0.71* 0.66
Improving analytical ability 0.63 0.62 0.64 0.57
Improving computer skills 0.73 0.73 0.74* 0.69
Relevance with professional work 0.62* 0.53 n/a n/a
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020;
Note 1: +Higher index value indicates higher eectiveness;
Note 2: *** p<0.001, ** p<0.01, * p<0.05; n/a=not applicable
39
8.3 Perceived eectiveness of FLS undergraduate programs
Table 18 presents our research ndings on the alumni perception of their FLS degree by
enrollment cohort. In general, we found that the alumni feel there is a need for improving
computer skills training within their academic curriculum. It is certainly a point that the relevant
authority may look into and address as and when feasible.
Table 18: Perceived eectiveness of FLS undergraduate programs (% of responses)
Eective/Highly Eective 1996-2001 2002-2006 2007-2011 2012-2016
Developing knowledge - 97 83 81
Improving communication skills - 94 86 81
Improving writing ability - 91 85 84
Creating adaptability - 91 82 80
Improving analytical ability - 91 74 73
Improving computer skills - 75 73 67
Relevance with professional work - 84 67 68
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Note: * We received inadequate responses to make any analysis
Unlike the FBE faculty, responses from the FLS alumni were inuenced neither by their sex nor
their involvement in the job market (see Table 19).
Table 19: FLS alumni responses by sex and by market involvement
Index value+
Eectiveness of Undergraduate Liberal
Arts & Social Science Degrees
Female
Alumni
Male
Alumni
Alumni
with Job
Alumni
without Job
Developing knowledge 0.84 0.80 0.84 0.79
Improving communication skills 0.83 0.82 0.84 0.81
Improving writing ability 0.84 0.86 0.87 0.86
Creating adaptability 0.82 0.80 0.82 0.77
Improving analytical ability 0.74 0.74 0.76 0.74
Improving computer skills 0.70 0.68 0.70 0.69
Relevance with professional work 0.72 0.66 n/a n/a
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020;
Note 1: +Higher index value indicates higher eectiveness;
Note 2: *** p<0.001, ** p<0.01, * p<0.05; n/a=not applicable
40
8.4 Perceived eectiveness of FBE graduate programs
Table 20 presents our research ndings on FBE graduate alumni’s perception of their academic
degrees by enrollment cohort. In general, responses from FBE graduate alumni who enrolled
between 2006 and 2020 did not dier much. However, alumni responses caution that measures
should be taken by FBE to further emphasize the importance of improving writing and analytical
abilities in their graduate programs. Compared to undergraduate alumni, a higher percentage
of the graduate alumni found their academic degrees to be more relevant to professional work.
But this was to be expected given that many of the graduate alumni enroll in these programs
after they are employed.
Table 20: Perceived eectiveness of FBE graduate programs (% of responses)
Eective/Highly Eective 1999-2005 2006-2010 2011-2015 2016-2020
Developing knowledge 93 82 80 78
Improving communication skills 88 79 75 75
Improving writing ability 82 70 69 72
Creating adaptability 82 76 72 78
Improving analytical ability 81 72 65 64
Improving computer skills 75 65 63 60
Relevance with professional work 76 73 6 64
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Table 21, we see those female alumni, compared to males, perceived their degrees to be more
eective in terms of improving writing ability and we found the dierence to be statistically
signicant. On the other hand, compared to females, male alumni perceived the program to be
more eective in terms of developing knowledge and improving analytical ability. Besides,
graduate alumni who are involved in market activity responded that the degree program
signicantly (at the 5% level) helped them to improve analytical ability compared to those not
involved in market activity.
Table 21: FBE graduate alumni responses by sex and by market involvement
Index value+
Eectiveness of Graduate Business
& Economics Degrees
Female
Alumni
Male
Alumni
Alumni
with Job
Alumni
without Job
Developing knowledge 0.77 0.82* 0.81 0.79
Improving communication skills 0.76 0.77 0.77 0.73
Improving writing ability 0.75* 0.70 0.70 0.75
Creating adaptability 0.77 0.75 0.76 0.73
Improving analytical ability 0.64 0.68* 0.68* 0.62
Improving computer skills 0.64 0.63 0.63 0.62
Relevance with professional work 0.65 0.67 n/a n/a
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020;
Note 1: +Higher index value indicates higher eectiveness;
Note 2: *** p<0.001, ** p<0.01, * p<0.05; n/a=not applicable
41
8.5 Perceived eectiveness of FSE graduate programs
Table 22 presents our research ndings on FSE graduate alumni’s perception of their academic
degrees by enrollment cohort. We observe that alumni who enrolled between 2011 and 2015
responded that the program was highly eective in all indicators. Over time, a relatively higher
degree of variation in percentage responses is observed for two indicators – improving writing
ability and improving analytical ability.
Table 22: Perceived eectiveness of FSE graduate programs (% of responses)
Eective/Highly Eective 1999-2005 2006-2010 2011-2015 2016-2020
Developing knowledge - 78 85 74
Improving communication skills - 71 78 72
Improving writing ability - 67 80 65
Creating adaptability - 76 76 73
Improving analytical ability - 60 79 66
Improving computer skills - 75 80 63
Relevance with professional work - 57 75 62
Note: * We received inadequate responses to make any analysis
Table 23 shows that female alumni, compared to males, perceived the program to be more
eective in terms of improving writing ability and female responses were found to be statistically
signicantly dierent than males. We also see that involvement in job or market activity, on
average, did not create any statistically signicant dierence in responses for all indicators.
Table 23: FSE graduate alumni responses by sex and by market involvement
Index value+
Eectiveness of Graduate Science
& Engineering Degrees
Female
Alumni
Male
Alumni
Alumni with
Job
Alumni
without Job
Developing knowledge 0.78 0.81 0.79 0.80
Improving communication skills 0.73 0.76 0.74 0.74
Improving writing ability 0.76* 0.64 0.74 0.70
Creating adaptability 0.78 0.72 0.74 0.72
Improving analytical ability 0.72 0.70 0.71 0.63
Improving computer skills 0.73 0.71 0.73 0.65
Relevance with professional work 0.70 0.66 n/a n/a
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020;
Note 1: +Higher index value indicates higher eectiveness;
Note 2: *** p<0.001, ** p<0.01, * p<0.05; n/a=not applicable
42
8.6 Perceived eectiveness of FLS graduate programs
Table 24 presents our research ndings on FLS graduate alumni’s perception of their academic
degrees by enrollment cohort. Similar to their undergraduate alumni, the FLS graduate alumni
also mentioned that there was scope for improvement in computer skills training within their
academic curriculum.
Table 24: Perceived eectiveness of FLS graduate programs (% of responses)
Eective/Highly Eective 1999-2005 2006-2010 2011-2015 2016-2020
Developing knowledge - 89 85 81
Improving communication skills - 92 83 80
Improving writing ability - 86 89 81
Creating adaptability - 81 88 79
Improving analytical ability - 86 77 77
Improving computer skills - 72 65 69
Relevance with professional work - 74 70 81
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Note: * We received inadequate responses to make any analysis
Table 25 shows that female alumni, compared to males, perceived their degrees to be more
eective in terms of improving writing ability and female responses were found to be
statistically signicantly dierent than males. On the other hand, alumni who are involved in
job or any market activity, expectedly, found their degrees to be more eective compared to
those not involved in market activity for the four indicators – developing knowledge, improving
communication skills, creating adaptability and improving computer skills.
Table 25: FLS graduate alumni responses by sex and by market involvement
Index value+
Eectiveness of Graduate Liberal Arts
& Social Science Degrees
Female
Alumni
Male
Alumni
Alumni
with Job Alumni without Job
Developing knowledge 0.86 0.79 0.86* 0.68
Improving communication skills 0.83 0.84 0.85* 0.73
Improving writing ability 0.88* 0.80 0.86 0.80
Creating adaptability 0.82 0.82 0.87** 0.68
Improving analytical ability 0.81 0.75 0.81* 0.70
Improving computer skills 0.71 0.64 0.73*** 0.49
Relevance with professional work 0.79 0.72 n/a n/a
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020;
Note 1: +Higher index value indicates higher eectiveness;
Note 2: *** p<0.001, ** p<0.01, * p<0.05; n/a=not applicable
43
8.7 Perceived usefulness of EWU graduate degree in career progression
Figure 21 presents our ndings regarding graduates’ perceived usefulness of their EWU
degree in professional progression. Kindly note that we are now considering alumni who have
completed only a graduate degree from EWU and who are currently involved in jobs or market
activities. Nearly 43% of the alumni mentioned that their EWU graduate degree helped them
to achieve promotion in their respective jobs (see Figure 21). In addition, another 43% of the
alumni suggested that their EWU graduate degree partially helped them to receive a promotion
while another 14% said that it was not useful to obtain a promotion at work.
Table 26 further breaks down the percentage of alumni receiving promotion after completing
EWU graduate degrees by faculty and by sex. Overall, nearly 42% of the male alumni suggested
that the graduate degree earned from EWU partially helped them to receive a promotion while
another 14% said that it was not useful to obtain a promotion at work. On the other hand,
nearly 40% of the female alumni mentioned that the EWU graduate degree helped them to
achieve promotion in their respective jobs (see Table 26). In addition, 42% of the female alumni
suggested that their EWU graduate degree partially helped them to receive a promotion while
another 17% said that it was not useful to obtain a promotion at work.
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Figure 21: Perceived usefulness of EWU graduate degree in professional progress
No Partially Yes
44
Looking at individual faculties, we nd the results to be less encouraging for female FSE
graduates compared to their male peers. However, in general, male graduate alumni have
attained more career benets from their graduate degrees than their female peers.
Table 26: Percent of Alumni received promotion after graduate degrees by faculty & by sex
Eective/
Useful
Faculty of Science
& Engineering
Faculty of Business
& Economics
Faculty of Liberal
Arts & Social
Sciences
All
Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male
No 21 917 14 14 15 17 14
Partial 40 38 42 43 45 33 42 42
Yes 39 53 40 43 42 51 40 44
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
45
Our research objective 2.6 was to understand the employment status of EWU alumni (specically,
undergraduate alumni) and also explore sector-wise decomposition of currently employed
undergraduate alumni. In this section, rst, we develop and explore the job prole of EWU
alumni by faculty and by sex. Second, we cluster EWU alumni involved in terms of 20 sectors:
(i) accounting, audit & legal, (ii) agricultural (agro)-business, (iii) apparel, footwear and textiles,
(iv) automobile and transportation, (v) business process outsourcing (BPO), (vi) development
sector, (vii) e-commerce, (viii) education, training and research, (ix) electrical and electronic
engineering, (x) energy sector, (xi) fast moving consumer goods, (xii) nancial and insurance
services, (xiii) health and pharmaceuticals, (xiv) IT and software services, (xv) marketing,
advertising and media, (xvi) real estate and construction. (xvii) shipping and logistics, (xviii)
telecommunications, (xix) travel and hospitality and (xx) other (including business lobbies,
rms involved in export and import business with no specic sector, diplomatic oces etc.).
Finally, we look at the time needed for EWU alumni to nd their rst job by faculty.
9.1 Employment status of undergraduate alumni from FBE
Figure 22 shows work status of FBE undergraduate alumni. We found that 63% of FBE alumni
is employed in private organizations and 2% in government jobs. In addition, 8% of the alumni
is involved in businesses, 10% is pursuing higher studies and 2% involved in part-time or
contractual jobs. The reminder, 15% is not involved in any market activity.
In Table 27, we see that, among female alumni, 50.8% is employed in private organizations
while 1.3% in government jobs. In addition, 4.3% of the alumni is involved in businesses,
15.6% pursuing higher studies and 2.2% in part-time or contractual jobs. The reminder, 25.7%,
is not involved in any market activity (see Table 27). On the other hand, among male alumni,
only 67.7% is employed in private organizations while 1.7% in government jobs. In addition,
10% of the male alumni is involved in businesses, 15.6% in higher studies and 1.3% in part-
time or contractual jobs. The reminder, 11.0% is not involved in any market activity (see Table
27).
Chapter 9
Job Prole of EWU Alumni
46
It suggests at least three narratives for further consideration. First, overall, male FBE alumni are
more involved in market activities. Second, male alumni are proportionately and signicantly
more engaged in private services and business compared to their female counterparts. Third,
female alumni have pursued (or are pursuing) higher studies signicantly more than their male
peers.
Table 27: Gender-wise work atus of FBEundergraduate alumni
Current Work Status Female Alumni Male
Alumni
Percentage of
Female Alumni
Percentage of
Male Alumni
Public service 14 50 1.3 1.7
Private service 565 1,962 50.8 67.7
Business 48 290 4.3 10.0
Full-time udent 174 237 15.6 8.2
Part-time work 25 38 2.2 1.3
Currently not in jobs 286 319 25.7 11.0
All 1,112 2,896 100.0 100.0
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
For further analysis, Figure 23shows a sector-wise decomposition of private services jobs for
FBE alumni. We found that the top ten sectors where FBE alumni are involved are nancial
and insurance services (25.6%), fast moving consumer goods (11.2%), education, training and
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Figure 22: Current work status of FBE undergraduate alumni
Business
8%
Full time
student
10%
Part-time
work
2%
Currently not
in jobs
15%
Private
service
63%
Public service
2%
47
research (5.9%), apparel, footwear and textiles (5.6%), telecommunications (5.4%), e-commerce
(4.8%), IT and software development (4.3%), marketing, advertising and media (4.2%), real
estate and construction (3.9%) and accounting, audit and legal institutions (3.9%).
9.2 Employment status of undergraduate alumni from FSE
Figure 24 shows work status of FSE undergraduate alumni. We found that 59% of FSE alumni
is employed in private organizations, while 2% is employed in government jobs. In addition,
5% of the alumni is involved in businesses, 13% in pursuing higher studies and 2% in part-time
or contractual jobs. The reminder, 19% is not involved in any market activity. In Table 28, we
further see that 43.2% of the female alumni is employed in private organizations while 0.8%
is employed in government jobs. In addition, 3.2% of them is involved in businesses, 19.6% in
pursuing higher studies and 3.4% in part-time or contractual jobs. The reminder, 30.2%, is not
involved in any market activity (Table 28).
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Figure 23: Sectoraldecomposition of private servicesfor FBEundergraduate alumni (%)
Financial and insurance services
Fast moving consumer goods
Education, training & research
Apparel, footwear & textiles
Telecommunications
E-commerce
IT & software services
Marketing, advertising & media
Real estate & construction
Accounting, audit & legal
Health & pharmaceuticals
Shipping & logistics
Travel & hospitality
Electrical & electronic engineering
Development sector
Business process outsourcing
Automobile & transportation
Energy sector
Agro-business
Other sectors
25.6
11.2
5.9
5.6
5.4
4.8
4.3
4.2
3.9
2.9
2.7
2.3
2.3
2.3
2.3
1.9
1.6
1.4
0.9
8.4
48
On the other hand, among the male alumni, only 65.7% is employed in private organizations
while 2.9% is employed in government jobs. In addition, 5.4% of the male alumni is involved
in businesses, 9.8% in pursuing higher studies and 2.1% in part-time or contractual jobs. The
reminder, 14.1%, is not involved in any market activity (see Table 28).
Table 28: Gender-wise work atus of FSE undergraduate alumni
Current Work Status Female
Alumni
Male
Alumni
Percentage of
Female Alumni
Percentage of
Male Alumni
Public service 6 47 0.8 2.9
Private service 322 1,075 43.2 65.7
Business 24 89 3.2 5.4
Full-time student 144 161 19.3 9.8
Part-time work 25 34 3.4 2.1
Currently not in jobs 225 230 30.2 14.1
All 746 1,636 100.0 100.0
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Based on the above, we can derive the following statistically signicant results. First, overall,
male FSE alumni are more involved in market activities. Second, male FSE alumni are
proportionately and signicantly more engaged in private services and businesses compared
to their female counterparts. Third, female FSE alumni have pursued (or are pursuing) higher
studies signicantly more than their male peers. Lastly, Figure 25 shows sectoral decomposition
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Figure 24: Current work status of FSE undergraduate alumni
Business
5% Full time
student
13%
Part-time
work
2%
Currently not
in jobs
19%
Public service
2%
Private
service
59%
49
of private services FSE alumni. The top ten sectors where FSE alumni are involved are health
and pharmaceuticals (13.9%), IT and software development (11.3%), telecommunications
(4.4%), education, training and research (3.6%), nancial and insurance services (3.0%), fast
moving consumer goods (2.8%), electrical and electronic engineering (2.6%), energy sector
(2.1%), business process outsourcing (1.3%) and real estate and construction (0.9%).
9.3 Employment status of undergraduate alumni from FLS
Figure 26 shows work status of FLS undergraduate alumni. We nd that 42% of the FLS alumni
is employed in private organizations, while 2% is employed in government jobs. In addition,
5% of the alumni is involved in businesses, 21% in pursuing higher studies and 4% in part-time
or contractual jobs. The reminder, 26% is not involved in any jobs or market activity.
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Figure 25: Sectoral decomposition of private services for FSE undergraduate alumni (%)
Health & pharmaceuticals
IT & software services
Telecommunications
Education, training & research
Financial and insurance services
Fast moving consumer goods
Electrical & electronic engineering
Energy sector
Business process outsourcing
Real estate & construction
Development sector
Apparel, footwear & textiles
E-commerce
Marketing, advertising & media
Travel & hospitality
Shipping & logistics
Automobile & transportation
Accounting, audit & legal
Agro-business
Other sectors
13.9
11.3
4.4
3.6
3.0
2.8
2.6
2.1
1.3
0.9
0.8
0.8
0.7
0.7
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
5.0
50
In Table 29, we see that, among female alumni, 39.5% is employed in private organizations
while 0.9% is employed in government jobs. In addition, 3.4% of the female alumni is involved
in businesses, 24.1% in pursuing higher studies and 4.6% in part-time or contractual jobs. The
reminder, 27.5%, is not involved in any market activity (see Table 29). On the other hand, among
male alumni, we found that only 46.4% is employed in private organizations, while 3.9% is
employed in government jobs. In addition, 8.9% of the alumni is involved in businesses, 16.2%
in pursuing higher studies and 1.7% in part-time or contractual jobs. The reminder, 22.9%, is
not involved in any market activity.
Table 29: Gender-wise work status of FLS undergraduate alumni
Current Work Status Female Alumni Male
Alumni
Percentage of
Female Alumni
Percentage of
Male Alumni
Public service 3 70.9 3.9
Private service 128 83 39.5 46.4
Business 11 16 3.4 8.9
Full-time student 78 29 24.1 16.2
Part-time work 15 3 4.6 1.7
Currently not in jobs 89 41 27.5 22.9
All 324 179 100.0 100.0
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Figure 26: Current work status of FLS undergraduate alumni
Business
5%
Full time
student
21%
Part-time
work
4%
Currently not
in jobs
26%
Public service
2%
Private
service
42%
51
Based on the above, we can state the following statistically signicant results. First, overall, male
FLS alumni are more involved in market activities. Second, male alumni are proportionately
and signicantly more engaged in private services and businesses. Third, female alumni have
pursued (are pursuing) higher studies signicantly more than their male peers.
Figure 27 gives sectoral decomposition of private service FLS alumni. The top ten sectors where
FLS alumni are involved are: education, training and research (38.4%), nancial and insurance
services (11.8%), development sector (7.1%), accounting, audit and legal institutions (6.2%),
health and pharmaceuticals (4.3%), marketing, advertising and media (4.3%), real estate and
construction (3.3%), telecommunications (2.8%), apparel, footwear and textiles (2.8%) and IT
and software development (2.4%).
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Figure 27: Sectoral decomposition of private services for FLS undergraduate alumni (%)
Education, training & research
Financial and insurance services
Development sector
Accounting, audit & legal
Health & pharmaceuticals
Marketing, advertising & media
Real estate & construction
Telecommunications
Apparel, footwear & textiles
IT & software services
Travel & hospitality
Fast moving consumer goods
Shipping & logistics
E-commerce
Business process outsourcing
Electrical & electronic
Energy sector
Other sectors
38.4
11.8
7.1
6.2
4.3
4.3
3.3
2.8
2.8
2.4
1.9
1.9
1.4
1.4
1.4
0.9
0.5
7.1
52
9.4 Time needed to nd rst job for EWU alumni
Figure 28 shows that around one out of every three EWU graduates seeking employment found
a job within the rst 3 months. Correspondingly, around 16% and 12% of graduates seeking
employment found jobs between 3 to 6 months and between 6 to 12 months respectively. In
addition, around 9% of our graduates seeking employment needed more than a year. We found
that, compared to FSE and FLS, a larger share of FBE graduates found employment in the rst
three months after graduation.
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Figure 28: Time needed for EWU alumni to nd their rst job (% of responses)
53
In this section, we will discuss the various benets for EWU from alumni engagement (and
vice versa) by linking insights from our data with existing literature. We also review what
other Bangladeshi universities have done in this regard. The analysis in this section attempts to
address our research objective 3. The following lists the main benets.
(a) Ensuring and maintaining of practical relevance of academic training: Periodic
alumni feedback can ensure that degree programs are commensurate with current market
trends and patterns. We found that nearly 62% of our undergraduate alumni are involved
in private sector jobs, 2% are involved in public sector jobs, and 7% are also involved
in businesses. As EWU alumni are working in private and public sectors as well as in
businesses, nding knowledgeable alumni for receiving current market insights, trends
and feedback should not be dicult. EWU may also invite alumni as guest instructors
and/or speakers, which will help connect academic content with what is currently and
practically relevant in the industry. In this connection, we found that about 19% of our
undergraduate alumni have more than 10 years of experience in their respective jobs.
They will not only provide current students with better exposure to industry practices,
but will also motivate the alumni to gain intrinsic ownership. In addition, the alumni
may provide suggestions to EWU’s academic council to update course content (syllabi)
and/or design new courses to take advantage of current market demand.
(b) Point of referral and increased networking opportunities for future graduates:
Currently employed alumni can guide and assist prospective graduates with sector
specic information, which can be helpful before written tests and interviews for jobs.
Alumni may also act as a referral point in case of entry-level jobs for fresh graduates.
Often, sharing on the job experience with new candidates provides them with a priori
information and much needed comparative advantage over other candidates who have
no such information. We calculated the sector-wise share of EWU undergraduate
alumni belonging to enrollment cohorts before 2006 (as a share of all alumni employed
in that sector). These sector-wise shares are (i) accounting, audit and legal (8.8%),
(ii) marketing, advertising and media (14.2%), (iii) agri-business (7.7%), (iv) apparel,
footwear and textile (13.9%), (v) automobile and transportation (10.4%), (vi) nancial and
insurance services (23.7%), (vii) business process outsourcing (3.6%), (viii) real estate
and construction (14.6%), (ix) development sector (17.6%), (x) e-commerce (4.2%),
(xi) education, training and research (15%), (xii) electrical and electronic engineering
Chapter 10
Potential Benets of Alumni Engagement
54
(10.4%), (xiii) fast-moving consumer goods (14.9%), (xiv) health and pharmaceuticals
(18.5%), (xv) IT and software services (9.8%), (xvi) telecommunication (32%), (xvii)
energy sector (11.1%), (xviii) shipping and logistics (15.1%), and (xix) travel and
hospitality (2.7%). We expect that alumni in these cohorts, with more than an average
of 10 years of professional experience, should be well positioned to provide fruitful
networking opportunities for prospective EWU graduates. The diversity of their job
prole provides opportunities to promote, e.g., on-campus seminars on issues related to
the current job market, short courses and training programs for fresh graduates, etc.
(c) Fund Mobilization for university infrastructure and student welfare: Globally,
it is a common practice that alumni mobilize funds for infrastructural development,
project-based research grants, event sponsorships, student scholarships, etc. Although,
we should note that it takes a certain amount of time before an institution’s alumni
are professionally mature enough to make meaningful nancial contributions back to
their alma mater. We found that only 2.2% of our undergraduate alumni have been
employed for more than 15 years in their respective elds. Therefore, we feel that EWU,
having only just entered its Silver Jubilee year, should consider this as only a viable
future benet, especially, when considering direct nancial assistance for infrastructure
development. Rather, funds for research and student welfare is a more immediately
pragmatic option.
(d) Other benets beyond the ambit of university aairs: A strong and large pool of
alumni may oer other mutually benecial and innovative opportunities beyond the
aforementioned benets. It is possible that a strong and supportive alumni network may
help all EWU-aliated persons to get discounts in receiving services at establishments
like hotels, shops, rental car companies, restaurants, etc. In this regard, note that 7% of
our undergraduate alumni are currently involved in businesses.
Summarizing the above, Figure 29 provides a schematic outline of the main benets of
alumni engagement for EWU.
55
Table 30 outlines the current status of alumni-related initiatives at selected Bangladeshi
universities, both public and private. Our selection is based on publicly available information
shared in universities’ ocial websites. The importance of such an alumni directory is already
identied in the global literature. It enables prospective job candidates to communicate with their
seniors already working in a particular organization and obtain vital information regarding the
job, which gives them better opportunities to prepare for the selection process. While compiling
the matrix in Table 30, we found that many Bangladeshi universities have already taken steps
in this regard. Several of these universities have active alumni directories with member access.
EWU authorities should also consider taking initiatives in this regard.
Figure 29: Benets for EWU of collecting alumni information
56
Table 30: Existing alumni-engagement initiatives at other Bangladeshi Universities
Name of the University
Active Alumni
Directory with
member access
Alumni
Association*
University of Dhaka × √
Rajshahi University √ √
Jashore University of Science and Technology √×
Chittagong University of Science and Technology × √
Private Universities
North South University (NSU) √×
Independent University of Bangladesh (IUB) √×
International University of Business Agriculture and
Technology (IUBAT) √ √
BRAC University √×
United International University (UIU) √ √
Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology (AUST) √×
American International University of Bangladesh (AIUB) √×
Daodil University of Bangladesh (DIU) √ √
University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) √ √
University of Asia Pacic (UAP) √ ×
Green University of Bangladesh √ √
International Islamic University Chittagong (IIUC) √×
(i) The table was prepared from websites of the above mentioned universities. If a university only has data base with member access, but no
indication of an alumni association, then, we listed them as having an alumni database (see tick marks in the “Alumni Database” column
above). On the other hand, if a university has an alumni association, then, we listed them as having an alumni association (see tick marks
in the “Alumni Association” column above).
(ii) * Only for the overall university, not for specic schools, departments or faculties.
57
In this section, we will highlight the overall conclusions derived from our research ndings
and, based on these, suggest relevant recommendations. In the following, we discuss our main
conclusions and related recommendations for each conclusion.
11.1 Lessons learned from the data collection process
nEmail was found to be the most eective means for reaching out to EWU alumni. Almost
44% of undergraduate and 53% of graduate respondents stated that they came to know
about our research initiative through email.
nAmong the alumni who started their undergraduate degrees before 2006, only 13%
submitted their responses. It reveals that reaching alumni from the most senior
enrollment cohorts was dicult. We could email about 66% and 95% of the alumni
from before and after 2006 respectively. A signicant number of emails “bounced-
back” when contacting graduates from cohorts of 2006 and earlier. This informs us that
allowing EWU alumni to use university email (domain) even after their graduation will
help the authority to reach and keep in touch with the alumni and vice versa.
nFacebook was found to be the second most eective means for reaching out to the
alumni. Almost 36% of undergraduate and 24% of graduate respondents stated that they
came to know about our research initiative through Facebook.
nWord-of-mouth communication was found to be the third most eective means
for reaching out to the alumni. Almost 22% of undergraduate and 20% of graduate
respondents stated that they came to know about our research initiative through their
friends and/or colleagues.
nNearly 40% of our responses were submitted in the evening hours (6:00PM – 11:59PM).
In addition, 17.5% was submitted during the lunch hour (12:00PM – 3:00PM) and 14.6%
during the post-lunch hours (3:00PM – 6:00PM). We suggest considering this nding in
similar future initiatives in designing appropriate strategies for reaching the alumni.
Chapter 11
Conclusions and Recommendations
58
nWithin our 27 weeks of data collection, we put extra eort in 15 weeks in addition
to emails and phone calls and in the other 12 weeks, we had only sent emails to the
alumni (mostly due to the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic). By extra eort, we mean
holding virtual meetings with selected alumni, forming a volunteer team from alumni,
launching video message from Prof. Dr. Mohammed Farashuddin, opening a dedicated
page in and carrying out organic and paid promotional campaigns through Facebook,
interacting with alumni in Messenger and WhatsApp groups and live streaming of career
conversation with selected alumni, etc. In those 15 weeks of extra eort, the number of
responses received was nearly 466 per week. In the other 12 weeks, this number was
108 per week. We felt that our manual process of data collection was time-consuming,
subjective to individual eorts, and lacked provision to update professional status over
time for the alumni. But it is more suitable for the university to periodically understand
the changes in alumni perception of its academic programs.
nWe found that more than 17,000 EWU alumni are already registered in this LinkedIn
page https://www.linkedin.com/school/east-west-university-cp/. Alumni have already
shared their professional information there and regularly update this information in
their own interest. To ensure updating of alumni proles over regular intervals, EWU
authority may consider creating institutional arrangements with professional platforms
such as LinkedIn.
11.2 Undergraduate alumni experiences and future implications for EWU
nOne out of every ve female alumni and three out of every ve male alumni joined EWU
after completing college graduation from institutions located outside Dhaka district.
Overall, one in every three undergraduate alumni joined EWU after completing college
graduation from institutions outside Dhaka. In addition, there was representation from
all 64 districts of Bangladesh, which shows the diversity of the EWU alumni.
n30% of all EWU alumni lived in either shared hostels, apartments, messes or relatives’
houses. Moreover, around 14% of all female alumni stayed in shared apartments, messes
or with relatives. We feel that the abovementioned numbers themselves should warrant
some attention from the university authority, because, EWU hosts more than 8,000
undergraduate students at the moment. In this regard, EWU may consider designing
institutional arrangements with nearby private hostels and/or housing facilities. This
will help to facilitate more convenient accommodation for students as well as ensure
better security, especially, for female students.
n
Nearly six out of ten EWU alumni actively participated in club activities. We found
that engagement in club activity had no statistically signicant impact on academic
performance of alumni. However, alumni with active club participation revealed certain
characteristics compared to those with no such involvement. Specically, (i) they were
59
more involved in their jobs and managed to get their respective rst job in a relatively
shorter span of time, (ii) relatively fewer percentage of them pursued further higher
studies and (iii) relatively smaller percentage of them remained not involved in any
market activity. And, all these characteristics were found to be true irrespective of sex and
of enrollment cohort. We feel this nding can be helpful for the authority in rationalizing
and leveraging future fund allocation decisions in promoting club activity.
11.3 Perceived eectiveness of EWU programs and key insights
nUndergraduate alumni from the Faculty of Business and Economics who are currently
involved in jobs (or market activity) perceived their programs to be more eective in
all indicators compared to those who are not involved in jobs. The perceived program
eectiveness indicators were (i) developing knowledge, (ii) improving communication
skills, (iii) improving writing ability, (iv) creating adaptability, (v) improving analytical
ability, (vi) improving computer skills, and (vii) relevance with professional work.
nIn case of undergraduate alumni from the Faculty of Science and Engineering with
involvement in jobs and/or market activities, there were statistically signicant
dierences in responses to the following indicators: (i) improving writing ability, (ii)
creating adaptability and (iii) improving computer skills. It highlights that computer
skills are minimum prerequisites, but better writing ability and adaptability improves
their job performance. We believe these insights should draw adequate attention from
relevant departments.
nIn case of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences undergraduate alumni, job
market involvement did not inuence their perception on program eectiveness.
nSix out of every seven alumni, who completed only a graduate degree at EWU, mentioned
that their degree either fully or partially helped them to achieve promotion at work.
11.4 Job market prole of EWU graduates and future discourse
nNearly 64% of our undergraduate alumni are involved in jobs, 7% are involved in
businesses and an additional 12% are currently full-time students engaged in higher
studies. Therefore, around 17% of our undergraduate alumni are currently not involved
in jobs or businesses. It shows that a relatively small share of EWU alumni are involved
in entrepreneurial activities. Therefore, the authority should review academic curricula
in order to better equip current and future graduates to engage more in entrepreneurship.
n
For undergraduate alumni from all faculties, (i) male alumni are more involved in jobs;
(ii) male alumni are proportionately and signicantly more engaged in business; and (iii)
female alumni have pursued (or are pursuing) higher studies signicantly more than their
male peers. For instance, while 70% of all male alumni are in jobs, the corresponding
60
number for all female alumni is 50.5%. Also, around 8.4% of all male alumni are in
businesses where the corresponding number for all female alumni is 3.8%. Moreover,
18.1% of all female and 9.1% of all male alumni are currently full-time students.
nAbout one in every two EWU undergraduate alumni seeking employment found a job
within the rst three months after graduation. We also found that, compared to Faculty
of Science and Engineering and Faculty of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, a larger
share of Faculty and Business and Economics alumni found employment in the rst
three months after their graduation.
nThe top ten sectors where Faculty of Business and Economics alumni are employed are
(i) nancial and insurance services (25.6%), (ii) fast moving consumer goods (11.2%),
(iii) education, research & training (5.9%), (iv) apparel, footwear and textile (5.6%),
(v) telecommunications (5.4%), (vi) e-commerce (4.8%), (vii) IT and software services
(4.3%), (viii) marketing, advertising and media (4.2%), (ix) real estate and construction
(3.9%), and (x) accounting, audit and legal (2.9%).
nThe top ten sectors where Faculty of Science and Engineering alumni are employed
are (i) health & pharmaceuticals (13.9%), (ii) IT & software services (11.3%) and (iii)
telecommunications (4.4%), (iv) education, research & training (3.6%), (v) nancial
and insurance services (3%), (vi) fast moving consumer goods (2.8%), (vii) electrical
and electronic engineering (2.6%), (viii) energy sector (2.1%), (ix) business process
outsourcing (1.3%), and (x) real estate and construction (0.9%).
nThe top ten sectors where Faculty of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences alumni are
employed are (i) education, training and research (38.4%), (ii) nancial and insurance
services (11.8%), (iii) development sector (7.1%), (iv) accounting, audit and legal
(6.2%), (v) health and pharmaceuticals (4.3%), (vi) marketing, advertising and media
(4.3%, (vii) real estate and construction (3.3%) (viii) telecommunications (2.8%), (ix)
apparel, footwear and textiles (2.8%), and (x) IT and software services (2.4%).
nThe above clearly show that our alumni are employed in wide variety of sectors including
newly emerging sectors, e.g., e-commerce, business process outsourcing, travel and
hospitality, etc. This particular nding should be useful when designing and adapting
future program and course curricula.
nWhile designing and oering new graduate programs, EWU may consider options for
introducing more professional programs. Not only private sector, but, public sector
professionals are now increasingly getting themselves enrolled in graduate programs as
part of their professional development. Targeting this new potential will be important
for EWU when redesigning and/or introducing graduate programs in future.
61
11.5 Need for formal alumni networking and institutional involvement
nBased on our literature review, we found that many Bangladeshi universities have
already established online alumni directories and/or formal alumni associations. During
data collection, we felt that, in absence of such a formal platform, the network among
our alumni, potential graduates and current students is rather slack. The alumni, during
focus group discussions and key informant interviews, also highlighted the need for a
formal association for EWU and we concur with their view.
nOur literature review also indicates that an alumni directory can be created with basic
information, e.g., name/ID, email address, current occupation, collected in this project.
In this regard, the current online directory developed by United International University
(https://alumni.uiu.ac.bd/index.php/user/Directory) may provide a useful point of
reference. For added verication and update, a few basic questions might be asked while
providing the access to this information. The ICS/designated cell should store, upgrade
and maintain this for the future.
nA designated EWU cell may prepare course-specic potential lists of guest speakers
among its alumni. The list may help to inform, especially, new faculty members at
EWU to whom they might approach relatively easily for inviting them to hold a guest
lecture as and when relevant. Additionally, it will establish a more engaging relationship
among current students, the university, and the alumni.
nA designated EWU cell should maintain a semester-wise annual calendar to arrange
soft-skill trainings irrespective of all departments. In this regard advanced training
tools on, e.g., robotics, Tally, AutoCAD, articial intelligence, etc., can be arranged in
collaboration with the respective faculty. If appropriate, members of the alumni may
also be invited to conduct the sessions as resource persons.
Majority of the top-ranked universities around the world are not only informed about the status
of their alumni but also publicize the alumni’s achievements through all avenues. Even at the
domestic level, many of the other established universities have also taken steps to create fruitful
engagement with their alumni. Some of these universities, to varying degrees, have even
formed formal alumni associations, collected and have published alumni directories. However,
to our best of knowledge, other universities, even those with formal alumni associations and/
or active alumni communities, have not conducted any scientic assessment of their academic
programs by the alumni. Our research in this regard is one of the rst attempts to generate
scientic evidence by engaging almost one-half of the alumni members. We believe that our
research ndings certainly provide EWU, on the occasion of its Silver Jubilee, an insightful
story for informed decision-making as it aims to scale up its sphere of excellence in education
by building an eective alumni community.
62
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65
Table 31: Responses received from the EWU alumni by undergraduate academic
programs
Undergraduate Degree Programs Alumni
Responded
Percent
(%)
Degrees
Awarded
Percent
(%)
Bachelor of Science in Applied Statistics (AST) 58 0.84 69 0.49
Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) 3,594 52.14 7,609 53.92
B.Sc. in Computer Science (CSC) 31 0.45 247 1.75
B.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering
(CSE) 625 9.07 1,230 8.72
Bachelor of Social Science in Economics
(ECO) 414 6.01 595 4.22
B.Sc. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering
(EEE) 499 7.24 857 6.07
Bachelor of Arts in English (ENG) 358 5.19 1,029 7.29
B.Sc. in Electronic and Telecommunication
Engineering (ETE) 224 3.25 485 3.44
Bachelor of Science in Genetic Engineering
and Biotechnology (GEB) 61 0.88 106 0.75
B.Sc. in Information and Communications
Engineering (ICE) 154 2.23 418 2.96
BSS in Information Studies and Library
Management (ISLM) 16 0.23 11 0.08
Bachelor of Laws (LLB) 64 0.93 64 0.45
Bachelor of Science in Communications and
Information Technology (NON) 0 0.00 3 0.02
Bachelor of Pharmacy (PHR) 730 10.59 1,278 9.06
Bachelor of Social Science in Sociology (SOC) 65 0.94 110 0.78
All Undergraduate Programs 6,893 100.00 14,111 100.00
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
Annex 1
66
Table 32: Responses received from the EWU alumni by graduate academic programs
Graduate Degree Programs Alumni
Responded
Percent
(%)
Degrees
Awarded
Percent
(%)
Master of Business Administration, Executive
Program (EMBA) 344 14.12 853 13.62
Master of Laws (LL.M) 35 1.44 39 0.62
Master of Arts in English (MAE) 95 3.90 382 6.10
Master of Arts in ELT (MAELT) 61 2.50 220 3.51
Master of Business Administration (MBA) 1,204 49.43 3,354 53.54
Master of Bank Management (MBM) 59 2.42 179 2.86
Master of Development Studies (MDS) 187 7.68 314 5.01
Master of Pharmacy in Clinical Pharmacy and
Molecular Pharmacology (MPHR) 182 7.47 258 4.12
Master of Population, Reproductive Health,
Gender and Development(MPRHGD) 11 0.45 34 0.54
Master of Science in Applied Physics and
Electronics(MSAPE) 20.08 15 0.24
Master of Science in Actuarial
Science(MSAS) 60.25 10 0.16
MS in Computer Science and
Engineering(MSCSE) 51 2.09 174 2.78
Master of Social Science in Economics
(MSECO) 123 5.05 123 1.96
Master of Science in Applied
Statistics(MSTAT) 27 1.11 34 0.54
MS in Telecommunications Engineering
(MSTEL) 49 2.01 275 4.39
Post Graduate Diploma in Population, Public
Health & Disaster Management (PPDM) 0 0.00 1 0.02
All Graduate Programs 2,436 100.00 6,265 100.00
Source: Authors’ calculation from the “Developing an Alumni Prole for EWU” project 2020
67
This questionnaire has been created for the “Developing an Alumni Prole for East West
University” project funded by the East West University Center for Research and Training
(CRT). The purpose of this project is solely to collect such information about EWU alumni as
will enable us to create a prole of EWU graduates and to gain valuable insights from the life
experiences of the alumni. This questionnaire requires about 5 minutes to complete. Most of
the questions only require choosing a given option. The project team sincerely appreciates your
kind assistance in lling out this questionnaire.
Section 1: Basic Information
Q1. Name of the alumnus: __________________________________________________
Q2. Gender of the alumnus:
Male
Female
Q3. Which of the following program(s) did you attend at EWU?
Undergraduate Program [will only fill up section 2]
Masters/MBA/EMBA/Equivalent program [will only fill up section 3]
both Undergraduate and Graduate program [will fill up both section 2 and 3]
Q4. How did you come to know about this form?
Friend/Colleague
Friend/Colleague
LinkedIn
Email
Phone
Newspaper
EWU Website
Annex 2
EWU Alumni Questionnaire
68
Q5. Your Contact/Mobile Number please [Optional] ________________________________
____________________
Q6. Your active email address please ____________________________________________
_________________________
Section 2: Academic and Professional Information (for undergraduate alumni)
Q7. Student ID (Honours/Equivalent) [Format: XXXX-XX-XX-XXX] __________________
_______________
Q8. Name of your Department/Academic Program at EWU
AST
BBA
CE
CSC
CSE
ECE
ECO
EEE
ENG
ETE
GEB
ICE
ISLM
LLB
MPS
NON
PHR
SOC
Q9. Why did you choose to pursue an undergraduate degree at EWU? [Multiple answers
allowed]
Academic reputation (general market perception)
Favourable tuition fee
Location (Close to my oce/home)
Permanent Campus
Quality of faculty members
Scholarship opportunities
Unique academic program (other universities don’t oer this academic program)
Others (kindly specify)
69
Q10. Which district did you complete your college (or equivalent) degree from?
Bagerhat
Bandarban
Barguna
Barisal
Bhola
Bogra
Brahmanbaria
Chandpur
Chapainawabganj
Chattogram
Chuadanga
Cox’s Bazar
Cumilla
Dhaka
Dinajpur
Faridpur
Feni
Gaibandha
Gazipur
Gopalganj
Habiganj
Jamalpur
Jessore
Jhalokati
Jhenaidah
Joypurhat
Khagrachhari
Khulna
Kishoreganj
Kurigram
Kushtia
Lakshmipur
Lalmonirhat
Madaripur
Magura
Manikganj
Meherpur
Moulvibazar
Munshiganj
Mymensingh
Naogaon
Narail
Narayanganj
Narsingdi
Natore
Netrokona
Nilphamari
Noakhali
Pabna
Panchagarh
Patuakhali
Pirojpur
Rajbari
Rajshahi
Rangamati
Rangpur
Satkhira
Shariatpur
Sherpur
Sirajganj
Sunamganj
Sylhet
Tangail
Thakurgaon
Q11. Where/how did you live during your studies at EWU? [Multiple answers allowed]
With your family
With relatives in their residence
With cousins in a rented house
In a shared house with others (student mess)
Alone in a rented house
70
Q12. While studying at EWU, how many clubs and/or student organizations were you actively
involved in? (Note: active involvement means you were involved in organizing and/or
participating in at least three events/programs for a particular club)
None
One
Two
Three
More than three
Q13. Did you receive any scholarship or nancial support from EWU for your studies? [Multiple
answers allowed]
No
Need Based Scholarship
Siblings Scholarship
Merit Scholarship
Medha Lalon Scholarship
Multiple Scholarship
Q14. After graduation, how much time did it take for you to obtain your rst job or to start your
rst business?
Less than 3 months
Between 3 and 6 months
Between 6 months and 1 year
Between 1 year to 2 years
More than 2 years
I had my own business (even before graduation)
Joined family business
Pursued higher education after graduating from EWU
Migrated overseas for work/settlement
I never had any formal job
Q15. Your current profession?
Business/Entrepreneurship
Freelancer
Government Job Holder
Private Job Holder
Home Maker
Student
Unemployed
I had a job/business previously but did not continue
Unable to work due to health related issues (sickness)
71
Q16. Name of your current employer / organization/ business? [If applicable]
___________________________________________________________________________
_________________________
Q17. Current Designation? [If applicable]
___________________________________________________________________________
_________________________
Q18. Rate the eectiveness of your respective EWU academic program in the following
indicators.
Indicators Rankings
Communication Highly Eective Eective Satisfactory Not Eective
Writing Ability Highly Eective Eective Satisfactory Not Eective
Adaptability Highly Eective Eective Satisfactory Not Eective
Analytical ability Highly Eective Eective Satisfactory Not Eective
Computer
Literacy/Skills Highly Eective Eective Satisfactory Not Eective
Relevance to
your professional
requirements
Highly Eective Eective Satisfactory Not Eective
Q19. Your average monthly income/earnings/prot?
[Note: We do understand the sensitivity of the question, hence, we have asked for interval
responses. Also, be assured that we will only use this information to generate summary statistics].
No income
below 10,000
10,001-20,000
20,001-30,000
30,001-40,000
40,001-50,000
50,001-75,000
75,001-100,000
Above 100,000
72
Section 3: Academic and Professional Information (Masters/Equivalent alumni)
Q20. Student ID (Masters/Equivalent) [Format: XXXX-XX-XX-XXX] __________________
_______________
Q21. Name of the Department/Academic Program you were in/studied at EWU
EMBA
LLM
MAE
MAELT
MBA
MBM
MDS
MPHR
MPRHGD
MS in CSE
MSAPE
MSAS
MSSECO
MSTAT
MSTEL
Q22. Time between enrollment in a Master’s Programme and completion of your last
academic degree?
Joined immediately (after nishing my Bachelor/honours/equivalent degree)
less than 3 months
between 3 to 6 months
between 6 months to 1 year
between 1 year and 3 years
More than 3 years
Q23. Why did you choose EWU over other Universities for pursuing your graduate degree?
Academic reputation (general market perception)
Class timing is favourable
Favourable tuition fee
Inertia (you love EWU and that’s why you decided to continue)
Location (Close to my oce/home)
Quality of faculty members
Scholarship opportunities
Unique academic program (other universities don’t oer this academic program)
Others [kindly specify] __________________________________________________
____________________
73
Q24. Your current profession? [Skip Q24-Q26 if you have completed both degrees from EWU]
Business/Entrepreneurship
Freelancer
Government Job Holder
Private Job Holder
Home Maker
Student
Unemployed
I had a job/business previously but did not continue
Unable to work due to health related issues (sickness)
Q25. Name of your current employer / organization/ business? [If applicable]
___________________________________________________________________________
_________________________
Q26. Current Designation? [If applicable]
___________________________________________________________________________
_________________________
Q27. Did the EWU degree help you in getting promoted/attaining a better job/improving your
business?
Yes/Fully No Partially
Q28. Rate the eectiveness of your respective EWU academic program in the following
indicators.
Indicators Rankings
Communication Highly Eective Eective Satisfactory Not Eective
Writing Ability Highly Eective Eective Satisfactory Not Eective
Adaptability Highly Eective Eective Satisfactory Not Eective
Analytical ability Highly Eective Eective Satisfactory Not Eective
Computer
Literacy/Skills Highly Eective Eective Satisfactory Not Eective
Relevance to
your professional
requirements
Highly Eective Eective Satisfactory Not Eective
74
Developing an Alumni Prole for
East West University
A. M. Tanvir Hussain, Asiya Siddica,
and Estiaque Bari
Working Paper No: 20
Regular Publications of EWUCRT
East West University Center for Research and Training (EWUCRT) brings out the
following publications on a regular basis:
1. East West Journal of Humanities (EWJH)
Website: www.ewubd.edu/east-west-journal-humanities-ewjh
2. East West Journal of Business and Social Studies (EWJBSS)
Website: www.ewubd.edu/east-west-journal-business-and-social-studies
3. Abstracts of Published Papers
Website: www.ewubd.edu/crt-abstract
4. Working Paper & Research Report
Website: www.ewubd.edu/working-paper-research-report
East West University Center for Research and Training
East West University
East West University Center for Research and Training
East West University
A/2 Jahurul Islam Avenue, Jahurul Islam City
Aftabnagar, Dhaka-1212, Bangladesh
Phone: 09666775577, Ext. 387
Email: ewucrt@ewubd.edu
Website: www.ewubd.edu
