Dhaka University to open industrial psychology department as demand grows

The Dhaka University plans to open an industrial psychology department as the demand is growing by the day.

“We are thinking of opening a new department so that they can produce industrial psychologists to meet the demand,” Dean of the Faculty of Biological Sciences Dr Imdadul Haque said. “We’ll be able to open it shortly”.

Currently, the Department of Psychology is running a masters course in industrial-organisational psychology. As many as 44 students of the first batch received a certificate on Sunday for completing training on ‘human resource counseling’.

The dean was speaking at the event.

Vice Chancellor Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Prof Nasreen Ahmad, Chairman of the Department of Psychology Prof Nasreen Wadud, President of Bangladesh Psychological Association Faruqul Islam, and Coordinator of the industrial psychology Assistant Professor Md Salim Hossain also spoke at the ceremony.

The vice-chancellor thanked the psychology department for their initiative and asked them to raise awareness about industrial psychologists so that entrepreneurs can understand their need.

Chairman Prof Wadud said they have written to 300 organisations and most of them responded positively.

“Many big companies are ready to recruit industrial psychologists now. They are asking us how many industrial psychologists we can provide them.”

Industrial psychology is nothing new in the world.

China first introduced it to evaluate work performance of workers and promote them accordingly.

Later, the East India Company used that Chinese model. From East India Company, the British government took the idea in1855 and then the United States followed suit, it was told at the ceremony.

Apart from the psychology department that offers both honours and masters, Dhaka University has two other departments to offer masters – Clinical Psychology, and Educational and Counseling Psychology.