Cost of business degrees in private varsities exorbitant
Sunday, 9 August 2009
Mehdi Musharraf Bhuiyan
The high cost involved in acquiring business degrees at the country's most private educational institutions was all evident at the All University Fair 2009, a congregation of representatives of local and foreign universities, that concluded in the city Saturday.
Some big names among the local private universities as well as a number of representatives of various overseas institutions took part in the three-day fair, with courses like Bachelor of Business Administration or Masters of Business Administration ruling the roost as usual.
"This is because the business activities are booming in the country- especially at the corporate level. Demand for business degrees are so high," said a participant.
Courses and curricula offered in these universities overwhelmingly correspond to the market demand, said the visitors who mainly come from rich or well-off families.
Insiders within the education sector observe that the obsession of the private university goers with BBA has created a saturated pool of business graduates in the job market, thus hampering the need for skill diversification within the local workforce.
A number of private universities over the years have tried to diversify their range of courses, they said, but it has hardly done anything to divert the flow from BBA.
"We offer courses on Economics, English, Computer Engineering and other engineering subjects or even Media, anthropology or sociology, but 80 per cent of our student traffic in each semester ultimately head towards BBA," said a representative from Independent University of Bangladesh (IUB), one of the top private universities.
Looking at the fee structure of these universities, it also appeared that the expense of education offered in such institutions has never seen a downtrend over the time.
Apart from additional charges like laboratory or library fee, admission costs alone at any top private university of Dhaka may range between Tk. 12,000 to Tk 15,000, while tuition fee per credit varies between Tk. 4,000 to 5,000- well above the affordability of the larger mass of students.
Another big players of the scene were the so-called local consulting agencies of various overseas universities. Instead of focusing on any specific courses, theses agencies are in some cases offering spot admission to the local students to the universities in countries like the UK, Cyprus or Malaysia.
However, when asked about the exact admission procedure or the nature of their link with those foreign universities they often declined to provide any specific detail, with one such agency terming it as a 'secret'.
Another great aspect of the fair is that it allowed room for training institutions, which, swaying away from the more popular options, offer professional courses on unfamiliar but highly prospective jobs like air hostess, call centre operations, hotel management or radio jockey etc.
Such events can surely increase competition among the local educational institutions, said an observer, while enabling them to compare themselves with their foreign counterparts and popularise the alternative professions among the younger generation.
The high cost involved in acquiring business degrees at the country's most private educational institutions was all evident at the All University Fair 2009, a congregation of representatives of local and foreign universities, that concluded in the city Saturday.
Some big names among the local private universities as well as a number of representatives of various overseas institutions took part in the three-day fair, with courses like Bachelor of Business Administration or Masters of Business Administration ruling the roost as usual.
"This is because the business activities are booming in the country- especially at the corporate level. Demand for business degrees are so high," said a participant.
Courses and curricula offered in these universities overwhelmingly correspond to the market demand, said the visitors who mainly come from rich or well-off families.
Insiders within the education sector observe that the obsession of the private university goers with BBA has created a saturated pool of business graduates in the job market, thus hampering the need for skill diversification within the local workforce.
A number of private universities over the years have tried to diversify their range of courses, they said, but it has hardly done anything to divert the flow from BBA.
"We offer courses on Economics, English, Computer Engineering and other engineering subjects or even Media, anthropology or sociology, but 80 per cent of our student traffic in each semester ultimately head towards BBA," said a representative from Independent University of Bangladesh (IUB), one of the top private universities.
Looking at the fee structure of these universities, it also appeared that the expense of education offered in such institutions has never seen a downtrend over the time.
Apart from additional charges like laboratory or library fee, admission costs alone at any top private university of Dhaka may range between Tk. 12,000 to Tk 15,000, while tuition fee per credit varies between Tk. 4,000 to 5,000- well above the affordability of the larger mass of students.
Another big players of the scene were the so-called local consulting agencies of various overseas universities. Instead of focusing on any specific courses, theses agencies are in some cases offering spot admission to the local students to the universities in countries like the UK, Cyprus or Malaysia.
However, when asked about the exact admission procedure or the nature of their link with those foreign universities they often declined to provide any specific detail, with one such agency terming it as a 'secret'.
Another great aspect of the fair is that it allowed room for training institutions, which, swaying away from the more popular options, offer professional courses on unfamiliar but highly prospective jobs like air hostess, call centre operations, hotel management or radio jockey etc.
Such events can surely increase competition among the local educational institutions, said an observer, while enabling them to compare themselves with their foreign counterparts and popularise the alternative professions among the younger generation.