University Press Limited, commonly abbreviated as UPL, is an academic publishing house based in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

, Bangladesh. UPL was established in 1975 as a successor to

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

' Dhaka branch where Mohiuddin Ahmed was chief executive. Its success in the publishing industry led to winning the '' National Book Centre Award'' 16 times since 1981. UPL is also the first publisher in Bangladesh to export books. As of 2018, UPL has published around 1,500 books.

History

Mohiuddin Ahmed was initially posted at the

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

office of Oxford University Press. After the

Bangladesh liberation war The Bangladesh Liberation War (, ), also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, was an War, armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali nationalism, Bengali nationalist and self-determination movement in East Pakistan, which res ...

, he returned to independent Bangladesh in 1972. He then became the Chief Executive of OUP Bangladesh and a roving editor coordinating the editorial activities in the branches of OUP in Dhaka,

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

and the East Asian branch in

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. When the OUP Bangladesh office in Dhaka was closed down in 1975, UPL took over the office and its publishing programme as the successor. Due to a lack of advanced command in

Bengali literature Bengali literature () denotes the body of writings in the Bengali language and which covers Old Bengali, Middle Bengali and Modern Bengali with the changes through the passage of time and dynastic patronization or non-patronization. Bengali h ...

, Ahmed focused on English language academic and research books. UPL signed a contract with OUP and

Orient Longman Orient Blackswan Pvt. Ltd., formerly Orient Longman India, commonly referred to as Orient Longman, is an Indian publishing house headquartered in Hyderabad, Telangana. The company publishes academic, professional and general works as well as s ...

to adapt school text books, initially starting with six books of OUP. As the successor of OUP, UPL also retained the local employees of the former. In 2018, a function was arranged to celebrate the 40th founding anniversary of UPL at the

Bangla Academy The Bangla Academy (, ) is the official regulatory body of the Bengali language in Bangladesh. It is an autonomous institution funded by the Government of Bangladesh that fosters the Bengali language, literature and culture, works to develop an ...

auditorium. For the first time, UPL Excellence Award was accorded to 41 different authors, institutions and patrons. The function was attended by Bangladesh's finance minister

Abul Maal Abdul Muhith Abul Maal Abdul Muhith (25 January 1934 – 30 April 2022) was a Bangladeshi economist, writer, civil servant, secretary, diplomat and politician. He served as the finance minister of the government of Bangladesh from January 2009 until January ...

Kamal Hossain Kamal Hossain (born 20 April 1937), better known as Dr. Kamal, is a founding leader, lawyer and politician of Bangladesh. He is known as the "Father of the Bangladeshi Constitution" and regarded as an icon of secular democracy in the Indian subc ...

Rehman Sobhan Rehman Sobhan (; born 12 March 1935) is a Bangladeshi economist. Regarded as one of the country's top public thinkers, he is the founder and the current chairman of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), an organisation active in open public di ...

Mahfuz Anam Mahfuz Anam (; born 18 June 1950) is a leading Bangladeshi journalist and public intellectual. He is the editor and publisher of '' The Daily Star'', which is the largest English newspaper in the country. He was elected chairman of the Asia Ne ...

, Rubana Huq,

Moudud Ahmed Moudud Ahmed (; 24 May 1940 – 16 March 2021) was a Bangladeshi lawyer and politician. He was a standing committee member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Ahmed was elected as a Jatiya Sangsad member five times from the Noakhali-1 and Noak ...

, and Anisuzzaman, among others.

Initiatives

''Road to Bangladesh'' series

UPL's best known initiative is the ''Road to Bangladesh'' series, initiated in the early 1990s, which is an ongoing book series on

Bangladesh Liberation War The Bangladesh Liberation War (, ), also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, was an War, armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali nationalism, Bengali nationalist and self-determination movement in East Pakistan, which res ...

to portray different perspectives on the event. The level of accuracy and expertise of the books in this series have made them highly valued among scholars.

Adopt-a-Library

In 2017, UPL initiated the ''Adopt-a-Library'' program which is aimed at improving the reading habit of the youth in Bangladesh. In cooperation with Lift Up Asia and Asialoka Trust, the program is designed to increase the accessibility of books to the readers around the country. The program also lends support to the institution-based libraries of different "primary and secondary schools, colleges, young learners’ centers, private and government universities, and madrassas". The scheme offers three bundles of books to the libraries to choose from, comprising 30 books each with a plan to increase the numbers in the future. The institutions would apply to the program website to receive one of the bundles and to get onto the waiting list while the donors would select an institution from the list and the number of bundles to sponsor. A confirmation of donation would result in the bundles reaching the institution. As of 2019, at least 1,200 institutions have responded to the program.

References

External links

University Press Limited
at

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:University Press Limited, The Academic publishing companies Publishing companies established in 1975 1975 establishments in Bangladesh Book publishing companies of Bangladesh Companies based in Dhaka