Recent literature has suggested that the relationship between globalisation and the English language implicates employability in the job market. Although the effects are uneven in different occupational groups and in different countries, such relationship is growing in significance to policy makers. This paper has explored the hitherto unstudied relationship between English language proficiency and employment and the success of Bangladeshi graduates in Australia to establish how English language skills influence the employment mechanism in the Australian job market for graduates from a non-English speaking South East Asian country. The study was carried out following an interpretive approach as its overall aim was to understand the role of English language skills of university graduates in determining their employment opportunities and career prospects in Australia. It was found that in various ways one's English language skills influence prospects of employment, especially in contributing to the possibility of "secure" and "better" jobs. The research findings may inform educational policy planners, teacher educators, employers and career advisers to optimise English language learning programs that support increased employability through English.

With the sudden onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and disruption of the education systems worldwide, private universities in Bangladesh transitioned to online classes to ensure continuity of education. Therefore, it was important to investigate the private university teachers’ and students’ perceptions regarding various dimensions of accessing online instruction and coping strategies used by teachers. A mixed-methods approach was used to collect data from 208 teachers and 674 students through questionnaires and focus group discussions. The findings indicate that teachers and students encountered several barriers, including unstable internet connection, costly internet packages, minimal support for teachers, issues with online assessment, and an unsuitable home environment. To combat existing problems related to assessment and to increase interaction in the classroom, teachers used a small range of coping strategies. Measures are suggested to ensure access to stable internet connectivity, financial support to students and teacher training on online pedagogy and assessment.

In the current world of business, English as a Business Lingua Franca (BELF) is used in both spoken and written communication and underpinned by the paradigm of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). While a number of research studies have been conducted exploring the spoken discourse facets of BELF users, relatively little attention has been paid hitherto to explore BELF written discourse facets, particularly, in business e-mail communication. This article examines how the BELF community discursively practices written discourse in their business e-mails. Data have been drawn from a pool of 92 e-mail messages collected from the business personnel engaged in international communications from five ready-made garments business organizations located in Bangladesh. These e-mails were exchanged between nonnative English speakers working as business personnel in the ready-made garments sector in Bangladesh and their counterparts-including both native and nonnative English speakers employed in six different countries. Applying both qualitative and quantitative content analyses, findings reveal that stylistically the components of e-mail messages are usually personalized, flexible and informal, and similar to ELF spoken discourse rather than ELF academic discourse and/or standard business letter writing. A wide range of language features have been identified in e-mails that are unique in this specific technology-based genre of communication. The awareness of these different facets of e-mail discourse has multiple implications in education.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has had a wide range of effects on education at all levels worldwide. After an unexpected, emergency and forced move from face-to-face to online platform for teaching-learning and assessment, teachers and learners were left scrambling to adjust and adapt. Concerning the importance of the above matters, this systematic review paper would investigate different aspects of online pedagogical trends and online assessment practice from the teachers’ and students’ perspectives during the COVID-19 pandemic in the existing literature conducted from March 2020 to April 2021. For this purpose, 45 studies of 33.864 research studies were collected from the database of ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Web of Science and analyzed herewith. For inclusion and exclusion of studies, the guidelines of the PRISMA model were followed. The results show that there are 18 different advantages of online learning, 28 challenges of online learning, 15 different purposes of shifting to online learning, and 14 different platforms used for online learning under different aspects of online pedagogical trends. For online assessment practice, 5 different types of assessment and 15 challenges of implementing online assessment are found. The study's ramifications for online teaching and learning and assessment are examined. There are also suggestions for future research.

Global higher education, including that of Asia, has been facing many challenges, notably declining government funding and simultaneously increased influences of neoliberalism on its outlook, aspirations, policies and practices. This reality has put the role and purpose of higher education (HE) under testament, particularly in unprecedented crisis-induced situations such as natural catastrophes and pandemics. This article, while focussing on an Asian context, is situated in the larger picture of HE’s responses to crises and what transformations that may be enabled in the process. In unprecedented crisis-induced challenges, how does HE serve the interests of the public and society? Likewise, in this context, how can HE maintain equity and social justice as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda? These very questions are critical for many societies and invite serious scholarly examination. Engaged with the literature on HE as a public/private good, HE and neoliberalism, and HE in times of crisis, this article discusses the case of the University of Dhaka – the leading university in Bangladesh – in its responses to the COVID-19 crisis (2020–2022). We show how HE as a public good is utmost important as governments everywhere are finding ways to incorporate the SDGs into every aspect of their HE systems. We also posit that the COVID-induced transformations of higher education in the case of the University of Dhaka have proved HE as a public good to be a robust and resilient pillar for fulfilling various stakeholders' needs and aspirations. Such transformations have affirmed the values of humanity, access and equity in HE, and these values are here to stay.