Bangladesh needs a number of global standard universities
teaching excellence and research aptitud | Friday, 8 April 2011
teaching excellence and research aptitud
Gopal Sengupta At a time when globalization has become the order of the day, it is sad that there is not even a single university in the country recognized for its excellence abroad. Knowledge promotion must be the only objective of higher education. Research activities are next to nil in our universities. Publications of papers in international journals are few and far between. Unless universities are fully autonomous and are allowed to collaborate, we will be left far behind in higher education. Globalization has changed the dynamics of polity and society. Since the development of a knowledge economy remains an important goal of both the developed and developing countries, the establishment of educational institutions of global excellence ought to become the priority of the developing countries like Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, this largely remains an unmet challenge. While the University Grants Commission has been making a number of useful and important recommendations that deserve serious and urgent attention, there is still a gap between the rhetoric of reform and the reality of governance. This problem is acutely felt in the higher education sector. There is stiff resistance within the government to seek fundamental reforms that would enable a favourable regulatory environment. A number of universities of excellence are required to shape the development of our youth to assume a leadership role in nation building. Privatization in higher education does not necessarily lead to higher academic standards. Political, economic, social and cultural phenomena can no longer be fully understood in isolation. The agenda of a university should include development of scholarship as one of its core missions. Bangladesh is undergoing dramatic transformation. It is important to take steps towards establishing universities that will bring together the best of academic scholarship, teaching excellence and research aptitude for promoting knowledge-based initiatives all across the country. The initiative of establishing global universities of excellence has the potential to create new opportunities for growth and development in the knowledge sector, which is expected to be the key to future expansion of the Bangladesh's economy. The creation, development and dissemination of knowledge need to be democratized. This can take place only if both the state and private sectors make efforts to develop many global universities that will meet the governance challenges of Bangladesh and the world at large. Not many universities can claim autonomy and financial empowerment to function since they are either funded or controlled by the government. Consequently, they have all the aberrations of a government model devoid of innovation and initiatives that can encourage out-of-the-box thinking. The introduction of world-class universities will eliminate the huge expenses incurred by our youngsters to study abroad. Bangladesh needs a number of global standard universities of excellence imparting world-class education and promoting cutting-edge research across disciplines and to shape the development of our youth to assume a leadership role in nation-building. We need to develop a proper mechanism to monitor private universities and create an environment to develop more global universities. The writer lives in Canada and can be reached at e-mail: [email protected]
Gopal Sengupta At a time when globalization has become the order of the day, it is sad that there is not even a single university in the country recognized for its excellence abroad. Knowledge promotion must be the only objective of higher education. Research activities are next to nil in our universities. Publications of papers in international journals are few and far between. Unless universities are fully autonomous and are allowed to collaborate, we will be left far behind in higher education. Globalization has changed the dynamics of polity and society. Since the development of a knowledge economy remains an important goal of both the developed and developing countries, the establishment of educational institutions of global excellence ought to become the priority of the developing countries like Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, this largely remains an unmet challenge. While the University Grants Commission has been making a number of useful and important recommendations that deserve serious and urgent attention, there is still a gap between the rhetoric of reform and the reality of governance. This problem is acutely felt in the higher education sector. There is stiff resistance within the government to seek fundamental reforms that would enable a favourable regulatory environment. A number of universities of excellence are required to shape the development of our youth to assume a leadership role in nation building. Privatization in higher education does not necessarily lead to higher academic standards. Political, economic, social and cultural phenomena can no longer be fully understood in isolation. The agenda of a university should include development of scholarship as one of its core missions. Bangladesh is undergoing dramatic transformation. It is important to take steps towards establishing universities that will bring together the best of academic scholarship, teaching excellence and research aptitude for promoting knowledge-based initiatives all across the country. The initiative of establishing global universities of excellence has the potential to create new opportunities for growth and development in the knowledge sector, which is expected to be the key to future expansion of the Bangladesh's economy. The creation, development and dissemination of knowledge need to be democratized. This can take place only if both the state and private sectors make efforts to develop many global universities that will meet the governance challenges of Bangladesh and the world at large. Not many universities can claim autonomy and financial empowerment to function since they are either funded or controlled by the government. Consequently, they have all the aberrations of a government model devoid of innovation and initiatives that can encourage out-of-the-box thinking. The introduction of world-class universities will eliminate the huge expenses incurred by our youngsters to study abroad. Bangladesh needs a number of global standard universities of excellence imparting world-class education and promoting cutting-edge research across disciplines and to shape the development of our youth to assume a leadership role in nation-building. We need to develop a proper mechanism to monitor private universities and create an environment to develop more global universities. The writer lives in Canada and can be reached at e-mail: [email protected]