A total of 145 students from five public and private universities took part in the meet, that included four final year business undergrads from hosts The EWU, the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Khulna University, North South University and Independent University, Bangladesh.

Quazi Mohammed Shahed, head of Human Resources, BATB, said the objective of such an event was "to help students to present the practical situation of business and visualize it as well". Events such as these will give corporate bodies an idea how university students prepare themselves for the business and job market.

The event comprised of many activities such as business case-solving contest where each contesting group presented a case on the same topic. Other activities included knowledge sharing where five BATB managers delivered lectures on business related topics such as supply chain management, business and responsibility, research delivers thinking, leadership in business and adding value to business through IT.

Heads of human resources departments of three leading multinational companies -- Coats Bangladesh Ltd, Nestle Bangladesh Ltd, and Unocal Bangladesh Ltd -- were judges of the competition.

"The BATB got an insight into the capabilities of university students and faculty members and the educational standard as well. The judges got an idea of the level of education provided by the universities along with the business understanding of these students, " said Imtiaz Rahman, a business student from the EWU.

"Foreign universities have programmes where multi national companies hold seminars to hunt prospective candidates for jobs and events like these should be appreciated," said another student.

Edcational programmes on effective communication were held at the Khulna and NSU early this year.

"BATB is interested in regularly holding such programmes provided educational institutions are ready to support us," said one of its executives.

The hosts and participants agreed that getting a glimpse of the real business world was knowledge best gained. Students of the EWU got an idea of their standing with other universities and getting to know their counterparts from other institutions and quality compared with parallel institutions.

The IBA echoed same views and added that participation in corporate presentations like this gave students a greater exposure.

Khulna University team said these events should be more frequent. More universities from out of Dhaka should participate and know the real life business scenario of the capital. "We should get to know more about our competitors in the job market and share education quality through exchange programmes," said another student.

The presentation ceremony was the grand finale with the IBA winning the contest. The EWU came second and was the most applauded team. All the participants received certificates while four from the IBA, two from the EWU and one from the NSU received a ticket each as a gift to the BATB assessment centre meaning that these students have been exempted from the initial application/interview procedures for jobs in BATB.