Fee hike move by public varsities irks ex-student leaders

While the government is pursuing a policy to cut public expenditure on education and research in public universities, the insufficient allocations are also wasted in unplanned recruitment and promotion of teachers and staff, observed former student leaders. They voiced a serious concern as the university authorities are trying to raise various student fees and open high-cost evening programmes with alibis to cover up the lack of public finance, making the higher education a purchasable product like anything in the market and thus pushing it out of the reach of the majority people. Nagarik Oikya convener and former vice president of Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (Ducsu) Mahmudur Rahman Manna told UNB that the recent moves by the authorities to increase the cost of higher education as well as to shift the burden onto the shoulders of students enrolled in public universities reflect ‘irresponsibility’ of the government. “A huge rise in student fees as it has been undertaken by the authorities in various public universities in recent times is totally illogical and it’ll destroy the ethical aspect of education,” he said. “The recent tendency to increase the fee of higher education reflects that the government is shirking its responsibility to ensure the access to education to all,” Manna added. “It shows the ethical bankruptcy of subsequent governments as they’ve been failing to keep the cost of higher education within the general affordability,” Manna said adding, “Unnecessary expenditure of the universities has increased due to unplanned recruitment, among other reasons. And the promotion of teachers and staff is also responsible for the motif of increasing student fees.” Former vice president of Rajshahi University Central Students’ Union (Rucsu) Ragib Ahsan Munna echoed Mahmudur Rahman Manna’s concern, saying ‘although the allocations for the  public universities are scanty, the university administrations are constantly creating the budget deficit every year by unplanned and unnecessary posting of teachers and employees’. “At the Rajshahi University, the budget deficit is happening mostly because of the unplanned and unnecessary recruitment, promotion and increase of allowances of the teachers and other staff,” Munna said. Talking to UNB, University Grants Commission of Bangladesh (UGC) member Mohammad Mohabbat Khan said they are also concerned over the unplanned recruitment of teachers and staff in the public universities. According to the 39th Annual Report of UGC, which was published on November last year, 73 percent of the non-development allocations to public universities was spent on salaries and allowances of teachers and staff, whereas 11 percent was spent on education and related activities. The report said, “The reason for the gradual increase in the spending for salaries and allowances is the excessive recruitment of manpower by the universities, exceeding their respective allocations in the sector.”