The AUW has a strong liberal arts curriculum offering Bachelor of Arts degrees in subjects such as economics, philosophy, environmental sciences and public health. Since opening its doors 12 years ago, more than 900 women from across the region have graduated with bachelor’s degrees, with almost all returning to their home countries to pursue careers there.

Of these, 85 per cent are now employed in government, nonprofits, and corporations, including the World Bank, UNICEF, and Accenture.

The other 15 per cent are pursuing degrees at institutions including the University of Oxford in the UK, Columbia University in New York and Goethe University in Frankfurt.

Initially, the university struggled to drum up support for its cause, Ahmad says. The idea that women from poor backgrounds could command top resources – and that textile workers, tea leaf pickers and refugees were capable of succeeding at university – was a hard sell, he says.

“One of the persistent criticisms was ‘why do you want to spend so much money on women's education? Why not just give them technical training?” he recalls. “When it comes to the education of poor people, there is a disdain for investing heavily.”

AUW, however, has taken a different approach.

“Projects aimed at poor people are usually cheap. The kind of education we provide at AUW is expensive because we bring in international faculty, and we do all we can to help these mature," Ahmad explains. "That is not often not looked at kindly by the international development community.”

Andrew Jones, the director of the Pathways to Promise course, says the university’s community and surrounding activities are vital to the programme, which is about more than just academic study.

“They're thrown into this multicultural environment, which is very vibrant. But it can be quite intimidating for the new students coming in,” he says. “We work to build their confidence in the way we teach, focusing on soft skills, and following what we call ‘a whole person approach’.”

Alongside English and mathematics, Jones says Pathways students are also encouraged to do extra-curricular classes, such as karate, classical dance and singing, as well as attend events organised in and outside of the university so they can mingle with older students.

Once the students progress from Pathways through the Access Academy and eventually to their undergraduate studies, AUW faculty will help them set up internships or part time jobs to gain experience and an independent livelihood.

Rohingya students, for example, are sought after by the language nonprofit Translators Without Borders, who work with Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in the camps in the Cox’s Bazar area of Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, many Afghan students have gone to work for the civil service within Afghanistan or for other NGOs like BRAC in Bangladesh, as well as the United Nations.

In Bangladesh, some garment factories have been providing AUW students with middle management and other internship opportunities. According to Jones, many women express a preference to return to their home communities to help improve working life there for others.

Yeasmin is among them. The 23-year-old is currently studying for a BA in politics, philosophy and economics, and has also started her own foundation, Ovoya, which means ‘fearless’ in her native Bengali.

Among its initiatives is a scheme to donate sanitary towels to poor communities, and to hold workshops around menstrual hygiene and women’s health.

Most recently, she partnered with other local organisations to distribute food, water and sanitary towels to more than 500 families around Chittagong during the Covid-19 crisis.

“It’s my dream to do a Master’s in social development after graduating from AUW,” she says. “After that, I want to officially register my foundation, and create my own sanitary towel brand. I also want to go back to the garment factories and make positive changes at a policy level, to make people’s work lives better.”