Universities of the country

After the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, there were only four public universities and the government was not in a position to raise funds to establish and run an adequate number of universities for the growing number of students in the country. However, by mid-1980s, the number of public universities gradually rose to seven from four. But in the subsequent decades the number of universities shot up to nearly 90. Of them, 31 are government-funded autonomous entities and the rest belong to the private sector.

The idea of establishing private universities in Bangladesh cropped up after seeing a growing number of students seeking higher education but public universities were insufficient. Another factor that acted behind the establishment of private universities was to stop the increasing number of students going abroad for higher studies spending huge amount of foreign exchanges. It was hoped that private universities, like in other countries, will provide the students with better education and stop the outflow of meritorious students abroad for better education at the cost of country's hard earned foreign exchanges since the public ones are under shadows of atrophied politics.

But since the establishment of private universities there always arose a question mark on the dedication of private universities in imparting appropriate standard of education to their students. But the government was forced to rely on them for lack of funds to create more public institutions for the large number of students passing out from colleges every year to get higher university education. Nevertheless, many of these students are still going out of the country to get higher education, failing to cope with the university intake examinations. Of late, these admission tests are plagued by fraud, including question leaks. Eventually, right faculties are also not coming up for faults in merit judgment.

In course of time some of such general private universities have even opened engineering and medical faculties to seize the opportunity of hordes of students trying but failing to get in state-run engineering universities and medical colleges for their limited capacities. Political and different other considerations also allegedly work behind intake into public universities. As a result the meaning of education is being restated with time. Investing in education sector is seen as one of the newest business solutions to some who have enough and to spare. With all the private universities running in full swing around the country one of the biggest questions arising in people's mind is: "Are we giving our wards in the right hands"?

Intense politics - both teacher and student politics - in the public universities is also blamed for a gradual downgrading of standards of education in such universities too. But that is another story. The story of the significant number of those who are left with no option but to carry out their higher education other than enrolling in private universities starts just after their tiring and somewhat, one may say, 'brutal' admission test run for the public universities. A significant number of students get enrolled with the country's many private universities every year. But in most cases, they are allegedly deceived. Extensive marketing efforts of these private universities hide the level of standard of education they actually provide their students with. After passing several years in these universities, students get a degree in their demanding subjects. But most of these graduates from private universities fail to get desired jobs. The employers do not even trust the merit of most of the private university graduates as they fail to deliver expected performance in their service careers.

Although some of the private universities are now getting the same value as public universities, still there are not enough chances for private graduates on the job market. Inevitably that raises a question about the standard of education these private universities are imparting to their students in exchange of their guardians' huge expenses. Obtaining certificates in any discipline of knowledge from the country's private universities are far more costly that that of public universities. So the question over quality education in private universities is shot from all sides - critics. The watchdog agencies themselves as well as the multilateral global development financiers are rightly of the view that proper education is a vital and fundamental element of grooming skilled manpower for taking Bangladesh on higher planes of economic development. Adequately qualified manpower is vital for Bangladesh to push it forward from advances already made and the prospects in sight for tapping.

However, the University Grants Commission (UGC) is responsible for maintaining the standard and quality of education in the country's both public and private universities in general. The affirmation to the fact that the educational standard of the country's private university graduates is questionable by the UGC focuses on the failure of the governing body of such university in its very duty. However, this supervising body in the field of the country's higher education has recommended some steps in its annual report, including research collaboration between the universities and industries and reform in education system and evaluation of university students' performances.  

But a moot point remains for pondering by all is that the question-setters and evaluators of answer-sheets cannot be the same. Unfortunately, this is the case in many of the country's private universities. On the other hand what happens in merit judgment in public universities, in some cases, also raises question. It has been noticed that there are instances of intimacy and appeasement yielding the unexpected by common knowledge. So for transparency's sake, the entire examination system needs to be reformed. The UGC has submitted a draft of guidelines for the 'Accreditation Council' - seen as a much-needed step for ensuring quality of education. In fact, private universities largely fail to do their duties and to upgrade their standards due to their faulty governing bodies and their conductors. In most cases politics, business interests of the sponsors also allegedly have a play. Such things in the past in the academia even led to the shutdown of a number of private universities. The universities were closed for their faults, but the fact that government did not even realise is that the doors of higher education for many ill-fated students were also shut on them for no fault of the learners.  

However, one comparative advantage with the private universities is that these institutions are officially politics-free and faculty and students by and large are not activists of mainstream political parties of the country as are in the public universities. The private universities are supposed to function purely as academic institutions. As a result it helps to maintain the academic calendar without having any session jams as compared to the public universities. Over and above, the emergence of the private universities has created a competitive environment for the public universities and in this race the former is increasingly becoming visible both in terms of number of enrolment and overall performance with the passage of time. Nevertheless, to speak the truth, both public and private universities need to improve their academic standard in some respects.

But it is necessary that the low-cost or government subsidized public universities need to improve their environment by strictly supervising the political activities since these are the last resort of the wards of the overwhelming majority of people of this poor country. While the private ones need to concentrate on their basic standards of education and cut down the cost of education so that the wards of the middle and lower middle income group of people can also enjoy the privilege of entering such universities. The private university authorities need to accept the fact that education is not a product or commodity to sell on the market to the highest bidder but this is a right.

The country is, hopefully, marching forward to achieving the status of a middle-income country by the year 2021. Private universities, side by side with the public universities, can help the government in this respect by grooming competent graduates. In the absence of sufficient numbers of public universities, and to stop the outflow of meritorious and affordable students abroad for better education, effective monitoring and control to ensure quality education in private universities is an imperative.

The writer is a retired Professor of Economics, BCS General Education Cadre. Email: [email protected]