Incorporating Social Business in the Curricula of Universities in Bangladesh: A Strategic Imperative for Inclusive Development

Reimagining Higher Education for Social Impact

In a time of deepening socioeconomic inequalities, ecological crisis, and growing demand for moral leadership, Bangladesh is at a crossroads in defining the future of its higher education. While the country aims to create a more just, equitable, and sustainable society, a radical reconsideration of scholarly priorities is not only appropriate, it is urgent.

Underpinning this revolution is the concept of Social Business, an innovative model developed by Nobel Peace Prize Winner Professor Muhammad Yunus. It challenges conventional profit-maximizing capitalist principles by proposing a business that does one thing: addressing social problems, without paying out the profits to shareholders. Entrepreneurship, in this case, is not a means of personal wealth accumulation, but a very successful tool for human dignity, community empowerment, and sustainable development.

Bangladesh universities have been busy for decades; their attention being mainly focused on preparing graduates to enter traditional labor markets with a high emphasis placed on technical competence and corporate employability. While this has contributed to national development, it has constrained the role of higher education to the creation of jobs rather than transformation. Today, Bangladesh universities are well-positioned to lead a generation shift—from being job seekers to solution creators, social innovators, and moral entrepreneurs.

This piece tries to examine how the integration of Social Business in university courses could redefine the intent and potential of higher education in Bangladesh. The piece explores theoretical foundations of the model, addresses the existing status of curricular implementation, establishes gaps in institutions, and offers strategic pathways for incorporating Social Business into academic courses. Through such a paradigm, we see a vision for universities to marry knowledge with national development goals, so that students can embark on ventures that combine social value with entrepreneurial excellence.

In doing so, Bangladesh can reclaim and globalize one of its greatest intellectual heritages—and challenge a generation to build businesses not for the privileged few, but for the future.

Theoretical Basis: What Is Social Business?

Social Business is a non-dividend company established to solve social problems. The profit is reinvested to make a larger impact, as opposed to earning in an individual capacity. As Dr. Yunus puts it:

“A social business is a cause-oriented business. Investors/owners in a social business can get back the invested capital over time, but then not any dividend. The objective of investment is only to achieve one or more social objectives through the company business.”

This model stands at the nexus of business innovation, social entrepreneurship, and ethical capitalism, offering fertile ground for academic research and pedagogical innovation.

Why Social Business Belongs in the Curriculum: A National Imperative and Global Opportunity

Placing Social Business in university curricula is not only an educational innovation—it is a development imperative for Bangladesh’s 21st-century course. While the nation navigates its transition to an inclusive, innovative-driven economy, higher education must keep pace with the challenges of our times. Social Business, as a groundbreaking academic and applied model, offers just such a change. The following are four conceivable explanations as to why it needs to be introduced in the curriculum of Bangladeshi universities:

1. Alignment with National Development Agendas

Bangladesh’s twenty-five-year vision, conceived in Vision 2041, and its commitment to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) both represent the country’s aspiration to end poverty, create job-creating employment, and form sustainable communities. Social Business, by its very nature, represents these aspirations.

Unlike conventional businesses that are established to generate profits for owners, Social Businesses are established to solve social problems such as poverty, access to health care, unemployment, disparities in education, and environmental degradation. By educating students under this paradigm, universities can build a generation of socially conscious entrepreneurs capable of advancing national agendas, neither through policy activism nor government work, but through business innovation rooted in social justice.

“We need to prepare our youth not just to succeed in a competitive world, but to remake it for the sake of the public good.”

— Dr. Muhammad Yunus

2. Nurturing an Entrepreneurial Mind with a Social Consciousness

Traditional business education in Bangladesh has traditionally emphasized profitability, corporate tactics, and competition in the marketplace. While still essential, these skills are no longer sufficient in a world increasingly demanding ethical leadership and value-based business.

Social Business reconceptualizes entrepreneurship as something other than a way to personal wealth, but as a purpose-driven pursuit of human dignity and social transformation. Learning in this way asks students to move beyond the either-or thinking of “non-profit” or “for-profit” and take on models that build both sustainability and social value. By incorporating Social Business into the curriculum, higher education institutions create a new generation of entrepreneurs who innovate not just for market share, but for purpose.

3. Closing Theory and Practice through Experiential Learning

One of the toughest challenges confronting higher education is closing the theory-practice divide between the classroom and real practice. Social Business is the ideal pedagogical paradigm for experiential Learning, project-based education, and field engagement.

In addition to learning business concepts, students are prompted to directly apply them to social issues through case studies, simulations, community projects, and co-founded organizations. Through this experiential method, students gain essential skills—such as problem-solving, empathy, systems thinking, and innovation—while simultaneously developing social enterprises that have tangible effects in their localities.

Such immersion in application also imparts civic responsibility and moral formation, resulting in graduates who are competent practitioners, but also compassionate transformers.

4. Global Recognition, Local Leadership

The Social Business model has been embraced at the world’s top universities—HEC Paris in France, Kyushu University in Japan, Glasgow Caledonian University in the UK, and Tulane University in the USA. They have established Yunus Social Business Centres, offered dedicated courses, and produced impactful research on the model.

As the land of origin of Social Business and home of its first think-tank, Bangladesh has a moral responsibility as well as strategic interest to lead the world in institutionalizing this indigenous creation. By mainstreaming education on Social Business, Bangladeshi universities can reclaim ownership of this narrative, attain academic leadership on the topic, and inspire other countries in the Global South to follow suit. In doing so, they position their students not only to join an international movement but to shape it.

Genuinely, the incorporation of Social Business into academic curricula is a historic convergence of national relevance, international relevance, and educational transformation. It is a challenge to universities to redefine their mission, not merely as schools of higher education, but as force multipliers of social change, economic fairness, and prophetic leadership.

The Current Situation: Path-Breaking Initiatives and Long-Persistent Gaps in Bangladeshi Universities

While the concept of Social Business has gained ground globally and in universities, its integration into the Bangladesh higher education system, the home country of the idea, is irregular, scattered, and by far not standardized. Some universities have made exemplary efforts towards incorporating Social Business into their academic and extracurricular frameworks. However, these efforts, as pioneering as they are, are in silos and insufficiently scaled up within the broader education system.

Rising Centers of Innovation: Institutional Focus

Daffodil International University (DIU): A Beacon of Social Business Education

Among Bangladeshi institutions, Daffodil International University is a national leader in institutionalizing Social Business within the academic community. DIU started its operation with this model as early as 2012, when it launched the Social Business Students’ Forum (SBSF), an organization run by students with the support of DIU to instill the values and vision of Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus in the minds of the next generation of change leaders.

To further reaffirm this commitment, DIU established the Yunus Social Business Centre (YSBC), approved by the Yunus Centre, which has become a dynamic center for social entrepreneurship study, innovation, and education. DIU, under the leadership of YSBC, conducted numerous case competitions, community outreach programs, and social business exposure events, engaging students in hands-on, mission-based learning experiences.

In 2017, DIU launched the International Social Business Summer Program (ISBSP). This three-credit academic course welcomes international students from over 40 countries and offers a dynamic platform for cross-cultural exchange and collaborative learning of social business theory and practice.

DIU offers an undergraduate major in Social Entrepreneurship at its Department of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, to which students from all disciplines can take an Open Elective course of study known as “Social Business Models.” At the graduate level, DIU’s Social Business specialization within its MBA program cultivates business professionals to integrate social impact into enterprise development.

In addition, DIU’s short-term certificate programs, including its international exchange students through the Asia Pacific Summer Program, and Social Business Exposure Program—now in its 13th running—demonstrate an institutional commitment to embedding social business thinking not only in the classroom, but throughout students’ daily lives. Through these longer and multi-level programs, DIU has emerged as a national model for integrating Social Business at the core of higher education.

North South University (NSU): Thought Leadership Approach

North South University has engaged with Social Business through certificate programs, seminars, and research collaboration, in partnership with the Yunus Centre, to embed thought leadership in academic discourse. NSU activity reflects added interest, but it is co-curricular mainly or event-based, with minimal formal curricular linkage as yet.

University of Dhaka (DU): Occasional Engagement, Limited Continuity

Dhaka University—through its Departments of Business Administration and Development Studies—has been organizing guest lectures, conferences, and symposiums with Social Business as their theme. However, despite DU’s long-established name and academic attraction, Social Business has not yet been officially included in the mainstream curriculum of DU or an independent educational center established.

BRAC University: Entrepreneurial Synergies

BRAC University, within its Centre for Entrepreneurship Development, has acknowledged the relevance of Social Business to broader debates on social enterprise and social innovation. These are still emergent and do not have sustained academic programs or course materials that specifically address the Social Business model.

Structural Gaps and Systemic Limitations

Despite these promising beginnings, the broader environment of Social Business education throughout Bangladesh is nascent. Few public and private universities presently have standardized, credit-awarding courses or specializations in Social Business. Business and social science programs still emphasize conventional capitalist paradigms, with none being given room for alternative value creation paradigms and impact-oriented entrepreneurship.

Furthermore, interdisciplinary engagement is limited, with only a few institutions attempting interdepartmental programs that combine business, economics, development studies, public policy, and environmental science for researching Social Business as a convergence paradigm. Absence of research centers, institutionalized faculty development programs, and curriculum development work has also held back the progress of this critical field of study.

While the initiatives of Daffodil International University are an inspiring example of academic integration of Social Business, the university sector in Bangladesh as a whole is still quite far from the universal embrace of this domestic innovation. There is a moral obligation, a strategic time, and a development need for each university in the country to get on board with the ethos of Social Business.

By facilitating institutional collaborations, designing interdisciplinary programs, and securing policy support from institutions such as the University Grants Commission (UGC), Bangladesh can synthesize piecemeal experimentation into a cohesive, national phenomenon—one that revolutionizes the function of education and repositions the nation as a global leader in Social Business education and innovation.

Strategic Models for Integration

1. Specialized Courses and Electives

Universities must develop and offer full-fledged elective courses, including:

• Introduction to Social Business
• Social Innovation and Sustainable Development
• Business Ethics and Inclusive Entrepreneurship
• Impact Investment and Social Finance

These can be modified for undergraduate, postgraduate, and executive education courses across the board.

2. Integrating into the Current Curriculum

Social Business may be integrated into core courses:

• Strategic Management: On mission-based competitive strategy.
• Marketing: Examining ethical branding and social impact storytelling.
• Finance: Training patient capital, blended finance, and revolving investment modalities.
• Development Studies: Evaluating grassroots entrepreneurship models and poverty alleviation through enterprise.

3. Yunus Social Business Centres (YSBCs)

Developing YSBCs in universities can provide locations for research, incubation, field research, and partnership with NGOs and local authorities. These centers, as part of the Yunus Centre, are already established globally and can provide training to faculty, exchange of students, and case studies.

4. Capstone Projects and Internships

Last-year students can be encouraged to undertake Social Business projects as their capstone projects. Universities can collaborate with Grameen institutions, BRAC, and other NGOs for internships and mentorships.

New Pedagogical Methods for Teaching Social Business

The effective integration of Social Business into coursework at the university level is more than adding new content, it requires a total transformation of how students experience knowledge. The traditional lecturer-centered model must be turned on its head and become experiential, participatory, and transformational Learning that reflects the dynamic, reality-grounded world of Social Business itself.

With this vision in mind, various progressive pedagogical approaches can be employed to encourage critical thinking, ethical leadership, and entrepreneurial action among students. Not only do they bridge the gap between theory and practice, but they also enable learners to become self-motivated agents of social change.

1. Problem-Based Learning (PBL): Situating Theory in Local Contexts

Problem-Based Learning places the learners at the center of the learning experience by having them actively engaged in analyzing, identifying, and solving real-life social problems within their communities. In Social Business education, PBL motivates learners to:

• Identify issues such as rural unemployment, waste management, access to education or healthcare, and affordable healthcare.
• Apply Social Business principles to create non-loss, non-dividend, sustainable solutions.
• Develop impact-driven business ideas in interdisciplinary teams and prototype and pitch them.

Through PBL, students move beyond the acquisition of information and gain empathy, systems thinking, collaboration, and innovation competencies—all essential for developing socially responsible businesses.

2. Action Research: Bridging Academia to Empower the Community

Action Research is an iterative, collaborative research process that is best suited for Social Business education. Students and teachers build knowledge together through:

• Collaborating directly with disadvantaged groups to learn from them about their challenges.
• Co-designing Social Business solutions that are responsive to context.
• Testing and refining these interventions via feedback loops and reflection.

This method transforms students into social scientists and changes makers, making them actively contribute to community building while generating empirical evidence that feeds academic research.

“Knowledge that is not put into action is like a seed never sown.” — Adapted from Dr. Muhammad Yunus.

3. Case Study Method: Learning from Global and Local Exemplars

Learning from real-life Social Business companies enables students to study the success and challenges of turning theory into practice. Universities are required to include comprehensive case studies as part of the curriculum, derived from both local and international contexts, which include:

• Grameen Danone Foods Ltd. – Joint venture combating child malnutrition using affordable, fortified yogurt.
• Grameen Veolia Water Ltd. – Provision of clean drinking water in arsenic-contaminated areas.
• BASF Grameen Ltd. – Delivering mosquito nets to combat malaria in poor communities.

Through the study of these programs, students become familiar with business model innovation, stakeholder engagement, financial sustainability, and social performance in the context of inclusive development.

4. Hackathons and Incubators: Catalyzing Innovation through Co-Creation

To foster a culture of pragmatism and innovation in problem-solving, universities can organize Social Business Hackathons—intensive, short-term events where multidisciplinary student teams collaborate to develop innovative, scalable solutions for compelling social issues. These can be complemented by incubation programs that provide:

• Mentoring by industry experts and academics.
• Seed capital or microfinance access.
• Networking with development agencies, NGOs, and social investors.

Social Business incubators not only facilitate excellent student-led ventures but also serve as laboratories in life where hypotheses are proven, refined, and magnified in the moment.

Nurturing Social Innovators through Experiential Pedagogy

With the inclusion of these pedagogical practices, universities can educate Social Business as a subject more than instruction; universities can infuse it as a living experience of being part of the educational process. This creates a generation of students who are not only knowledgeable but also emotionally and ethically capable of leading society towards increased justice and equality.

Challenges and Considerations

• Faculty Capacity: Formal training in Social Business is absent for most of the faculty. Knowledge partnerships and faculty development programs are the solutions.
• Curricular Rigidity: Current accreditation frameworks may not be flexible enough for new interdisciplinary programs. Curriculum reform at the UGC level is imperative.
• Assessment Metrics: Impact-based enterprises require flexible, qualitative models of measurement along with periodic tests.

Policy Recommendations

1. UGC Endorsement: The University Grants Commission (UGC) must officially endorse the addition of Social Business in business and development studies courses.
2. Faculty Training: Design national training programs in collaboration with the Yunus Centre, BRAC University, and international collaborators.
3. Funding for Student Ventures: Government and private foundations must provide seed funding for student-led Social Business ventures.
4. National Consortium on Social Business Education: Establish a consortium of universities to share the best practices, resources, and research.

Conclusion: Bangladesh as a Global Leader in Social Business Education

Integrating Social Business into university curricula in Bangladesh is not an intellectual task—it is a bold step towards nation-building. As the birthplace of Social Business, Bangladesh is uniquely positioned to bring this home-grown innovation global through academic institutionalization.

As Professor Muhammad Yunus would put it:

“We can create a world in which poverty is only a museum exhibit. But to accomplish this, we need a new generation of thinkers and doers.”

Universities can be the catalyst for this generation to educate young individuals not just to work, but to empower them. By incorporating Social Business in the curriculum, Bangladesh can equip the next generation of leaders to solve 21st-century challenges with creativity, empathy, and boldness.