Foreign Service Academy is a training academy for foreign service officers of the Bangladesh Civil Service under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
History In the 1980s, the foreign service officers were trained at the Foreign Affairs Training Institute which was later merged with the Bangladesh Civil Service Administration Academy. Foreign Service Academy was established in 1996 by the government of Bangladesh to train foreign service officers after a need for specialized training was recognized. The academy started working from 1 January 1997. On 19 April 2019, the Academy opened a Genocide corner in memory of the Bangladesh genocide during the Bangladesh Liberation war.
Headquarters The academy was decided to be located at a historic colonial era mansion known as the President's House. In the 1960s, Queen Elizabeth II stayed at the mansion. After the independence of Bangladesh, the mansion was called the Ganabhaban ("People's House") and made the office of then-Prime Minister Sheikh Mujib but after the building of a new Ganabhaban in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar it was converted to a state guest house named Sugandha. In 1996, it became the official headquarters of the Foreign Service Academy.
Principals and rectors Until October 2015, the academy was led by a principal, after that by a rector.
SL No. Name Position Term start Term end Reference 01 Ambassador M. N. I. Chaudhury Principal (Foreign Affairs Training Institute) 1981 1983 02 Ambassador M. R. Osmany Principal (Foreign Affairs Training Institute) 1983 1984 03 Ambassador AKM Jalaluddin Principal (Foreign Affairs Training Institute) 1984 1985 04 Ambassador Humayun Kabir Principal (Foreign Service Academy) 1985 1988 05 Ambassador M. Anwar Hashim Principal (Foreign Service Academy) Dec. 1996 Jan. 1999 06 Md. Touhid Hossain Principal (Foreign Service Academy) Jan. 1999 Feb. 2000 07 Ambassador Mohiuddin Ahmed Principal (Foreign Service Academy) Feb. 2000 Jan. 2001 08 Ambassador Syed Muazzem Ali Principal (Foreign Service Academy) Jul. 2001 Dec. 2001 09 Ambassador Jamil Majid Principal (Foreign Service Academy) Jun. 2002 Nov. 2006 10 Ambassador Dr. Md. Saiful Amin Khan Principal (Foreign Service Academy) Mar. 2007 Aug. 2007 11 Ambassador Shahed Akhter, ndc Principal (Foreign Service Academy) Feb. 2008 May 2009 12 Md. Touhid Hossain Principal (Foreign Service Academy) Jul. 2009 Jul. 2012 13 Ambassador Mustafa Kamal Principal (Foreign Service Academy) Aug. 2012 Jan. 2015 14 Md. Shahidul Haque Principal (Foreign Service Academy) Jan. 2015 Oct. 2015 15 Ambassador Syed Masud Mahmood Khundoker Principal (Foreign Service Academy) Oct. 2015 Aug. 2019 16 Ambassador Syed Masud Mahmood Khundoker Rector Aug. 2019 Mar. 2021 17 Ambassador Shabbir Ahmad Chowdhury, ndc Rector Mar. 2021 Oct. 2021 18 Ambassador Asad Alam Siam Rector Nov. 2021 Jan. 2023 19 Ambassador Mashfee Binte Shams Rector Jan. 2023 Present
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