Management of public universities ought to change with the time
Sunday, 30 November 2008
Fakhrul Islam
V.H.H Green in his book named 'The Universities' said: "The universities were undoubtedly one of the most significant creations of the medieval world. Their graduates helped to shape its thoughts to create a mode of intellectual discipline, to lay the foundation for a scientific culture, to interpret its laws and its customs and to administer it governments."
Many aims and objectives have been added with medieval era to cope with the present era. At present, universities are the changing media of social, economical, and cultural scenario. Main task of the 'modern universities' is to cultivate and generate knowledge with its dissemination aiming for welfare and development of human beings and the living creatures. The one strongly held view that knowledge is for knowledge's sake, thus, has been replaced by the view of knowledge for the sake of change and development. University is the place of creation of knowledge and dissemination of knowledge. Among others, it ensures that it reflects and responds to the people living around it. Based on causal curiosity, a university rectifies the society to which it belongs to and to and points to what direction it should take. It is because of the fact that a university is the primary producer of innovative knowledge. It is mainly through intellectual and moral leadership of the institution of higher education that a tradition-bound and stagnant society is transformed into a modern and progressive community.
University Grants Commission (UGC) of Bangladesh is an apex and statutory body looking after the affairs of higher education in Bangladesh.
The major responsibilities entrusted with the UGC by the President Order No. 10 of 1973 are to receive funds from the government and allocate and disburse, out of such funds, grants to the universities for their maintenance and development and to determine the financial needs of the universities. The government shall, after due appropriation made under law in this behalf, pay to the UGC in each financial year such sums as may be considered necessary for the maintenance and development of the universities or for the promotion of higher education and research and for the purpose of all other functions of the UGC under this Order.
All universities are highly requested to follow and maintain mandatory suggestions. But most of the universities are violating financial rules and regulations and do not implement UGC's suggestions. In this connection, few examples are mentioned here:
The Annul Report(2007) of the University Grants Commission which has published very recently, it shows that 72% allocated money of principle budget has been spent in the head of staff salary and allowances. Otherwise, rest of 28% out of 16% has been spent in emergency and maintenance cost and 12% has been spent in education related programmes. No scope to allocate money for research work as an individual head.
It is estimated that in the fiscal year 2007-2008, teachers' salary, allowance, electricity, gas, water transport expenses may increase. Though govt. has allocated over 164 crore money, nevertheless this allocated money is insufficient because higher education is now more expensive. Over and above that university authority is disinterested/callous in the state of economical expenses. Universities have been transformed as an "Exchange" agent. Terms and conditions of appointment, promotion/upgradation has not been followed by the university authorities. Even the university authorities are creating new posts violating the principles/guidelines of UGC. Consequently huge budget deficiency and disruption of finance is seen.
Due to the liberal policy of pension scheme, the number of pensioners is increasing gradually. Demand of increased budget allocation is coming up from the six oldest universities of the country to provide pension money among the teachers, officers and staff. There is another trend to surrender 100% pension money and retirement age turned up to 65 in many universities.
It is observed that expenditure of electricity is increasing continuously in the universities. It has been turned up to about 25 crore in the 2006-2007 fiscal year with the comparison of 2003-2004 which was only 8 crore 82 lakh actually. Still this trend is continuing. The focal causes are that electric unit rate is high, misuse of electricity in the residential halls, teachers' due outstanding payment, are still rampant. Consequently, an abnormal pressure is created on budget due to this subsidy of electricity in the public universities. Water and gas expenditure have been increased. Valuable gas is burning unnecessarily in the university kitchens day and night long. University authorities need to pay attention to these things.
Every university has a transport facility to carry teachers, officers and staff to and from their respective places. Transport expenditure is increasing every year. If there is no equilibrium between income and expenditure, then a huge deficiency will arise in the other head automatically.
Every year the expenditure of university schools and colleges is increasing which are situated in the university campus. Positive initiatives should be taken to find out resources to generate their own income.
With this end in view, the UGC has prepared the following documents in the recent days:
i) Uniform Accounts Manual and Financial Guidelines for all public universities in Bangladesh.
ii) UGC has drafted and submitted two ordinance/law to the Ministry of Education on Accreditation Council for Private Universities of Bangladesh(ACPUB) and National Accreditation Council for Public Universities of Bangladesh(NACPUB) for continuous monitoring and evaluation of public and private universities in Bangladesh. This is under serious consideration of the government.
iii) There is a widespread allegation regarding irregularities in the appointment of different categories of employees in public universities. To bring uniformity in the recruitment, UGC has also formulated a unified and standard recruitment policy for teaches, officers and employees of the universities.
iv) This is an age of information technology. Keeping this in mind, the UGC has started implementing a scheme under which all 27 public universities will be connected with on-line internet service facilities which will ensure their entry into the international super highway.
In Bangladesh, public universities are run by the state. That is why these universities are reluctant to earn money from own resources. In our country TK. 20 is charged as monthly tuition fee from each student. To collect TK.20, we have to invest TK.40 to some extent. Nowhere in the world education is so cheap than ours. In many countries of the world, universities collect money from different sources by own endeavours. They are less dependent on government. In England, University of WarWick and University of Keel where authority earn 80% money from their own resources by their own effort. They earn money by establishing hotel, restaurant, auditorium, fishery project, agricultural project etc. Besides this, they deposit a portion of earned money by doing research and consultancy. Alumni association plays a vital and progressive role in this regard. In SAARC countries, Pakistan also earns 50% of her revenue from her own resources. There are many g evidence around the globe.
In Bangladesh, we should mobilise internal resources so that we can preserve autonomy in the true sense of the term in our public universities. Students' tuition fee should be increased but we must ensure that poor and meritorious student can acquire knowledge through poor fund. But universities should be frugal on the point of expenses. A culture of fairness and accountability should be established in the public universities. Simultaneously we must create a congenial environment for good governance, higher education and research.
The University Ordinance of 1973 has given autonomy to the universities. The main autonomous part is financial autonomy of the universities. On the whole, universities are run by the 100% govt. donation and grants. In the present era, the autonomy of university is a great question mark. The University Ordinance of 1973 was promulgated to control financial misappropriation, low standard of education, political interference, lack of teachers' accountability, terrorism, session jam, delay to publish the result of public examination etc. This was promulgated to attain academic freedom and democratic management of the university affairs. Enormous power is entrusted to university syndicate. The university authority sometime misuse this power. As a result, financial management and educational programmes are disrupted.
In conclusion, it is evident that the system, mission, and the goal of higher education have changed all over the world. In order to keep pace with the changing world, we also need to reshape and reorganise our entire gamut of higher education. The need of the hour is quantitative expansion without undermining quality of higher education, maximum utilization of existing resources and directional change. Like other institutions in a democratic society, universities should take all necessary measures for changing mobilisation of their own resources towards the achievement of the goals for which universities are established.
The writer is a PhD fellow at Dhaka University. e-mail:fakhrulugc@yahoo.com
V.H.H Green in his book named 'The Universities' said: "The universities were undoubtedly one of the most significant creations of the medieval world. Their graduates helped to shape its thoughts to create a mode of intellectual discipline, to lay the foundation for a scientific culture, to interpret its laws and its customs and to administer it governments."
Many aims and objectives have been added with medieval era to cope with the present era. At present, universities are the changing media of social, economical, and cultural scenario. Main task of the 'modern universities' is to cultivate and generate knowledge with its dissemination aiming for welfare and development of human beings and the living creatures. The one strongly held view that knowledge is for knowledge's sake, thus, has been replaced by the view of knowledge for the sake of change and development. University is the place of creation of knowledge and dissemination of knowledge. Among others, it ensures that it reflects and responds to the people living around it. Based on causal curiosity, a university rectifies the society to which it belongs to and to and points to what direction it should take. It is because of the fact that a university is the primary producer of innovative knowledge. It is mainly through intellectual and moral leadership of the institution of higher education that a tradition-bound and stagnant society is transformed into a modern and progressive community.
University Grants Commission (UGC) of Bangladesh is an apex and statutory body looking after the affairs of higher education in Bangladesh.
The major responsibilities entrusted with the UGC by the President Order No. 10 of 1973 are to receive funds from the government and allocate and disburse, out of such funds, grants to the universities for their maintenance and development and to determine the financial needs of the universities. The government shall, after due appropriation made under law in this behalf, pay to the UGC in each financial year such sums as may be considered necessary for the maintenance and development of the universities or for the promotion of higher education and research and for the purpose of all other functions of the UGC under this Order.
All universities are highly requested to follow and maintain mandatory suggestions. But most of the universities are violating financial rules and regulations and do not implement UGC's suggestions. In this connection, few examples are mentioned here:
The Annul Report(2007) of the University Grants Commission which has published very recently, it shows that 72% allocated money of principle budget has been spent in the head of staff salary and allowances. Otherwise, rest of 28% out of 16% has been spent in emergency and maintenance cost and 12% has been spent in education related programmes. No scope to allocate money for research work as an individual head.
It is estimated that in the fiscal year 2007-2008, teachers' salary, allowance, electricity, gas, water transport expenses may increase. Though govt. has allocated over 164 crore money, nevertheless this allocated money is insufficient because higher education is now more expensive. Over and above that university authority is disinterested/callous in the state of economical expenses. Universities have been transformed as an "Exchange" agent. Terms and conditions of appointment, promotion/upgradation has not been followed by the university authorities. Even the university authorities are creating new posts violating the principles/guidelines of UGC. Consequently huge budget deficiency and disruption of finance is seen.
Due to the liberal policy of pension scheme, the number of pensioners is increasing gradually. Demand of increased budget allocation is coming up from the six oldest universities of the country to provide pension money among the teachers, officers and staff. There is another trend to surrender 100% pension money and retirement age turned up to 65 in many universities.
It is observed that expenditure of electricity is increasing continuously in the universities. It has been turned up to about 25 crore in the 2006-2007 fiscal year with the comparison of 2003-2004 which was only 8 crore 82 lakh actually. Still this trend is continuing. The focal causes are that electric unit rate is high, misuse of electricity in the residential halls, teachers' due outstanding payment, are still rampant. Consequently, an abnormal pressure is created on budget due to this subsidy of electricity in the public universities. Water and gas expenditure have been increased. Valuable gas is burning unnecessarily in the university kitchens day and night long. University authorities need to pay attention to these things.
Every university has a transport facility to carry teachers, officers and staff to and from their respective places. Transport expenditure is increasing every year. If there is no equilibrium between income and expenditure, then a huge deficiency will arise in the other head automatically.
Every year the expenditure of university schools and colleges is increasing which are situated in the university campus. Positive initiatives should be taken to find out resources to generate their own income.
With this end in view, the UGC has prepared the following documents in the recent days:
i) Uniform Accounts Manual and Financial Guidelines for all public universities in Bangladesh.
ii) UGC has drafted and submitted two ordinance/law to the Ministry of Education on Accreditation Council for Private Universities of Bangladesh(ACPUB) and National Accreditation Council for Public Universities of Bangladesh(NACPUB) for continuous monitoring and evaluation of public and private universities in Bangladesh. This is under serious consideration of the government.
iii) There is a widespread allegation regarding irregularities in the appointment of different categories of employees in public universities. To bring uniformity in the recruitment, UGC has also formulated a unified and standard recruitment policy for teaches, officers and employees of the universities.
iv) This is an age of information technology. Keeping this in mind, the UGC has started implementing a scheme under which all 27 public universities will be connected with on-line internet service facilities which will ensure their entry into the international super highway.
In Bangladesh, public universities are run by the state. That is why these universities are reluctant to earn money from own resources. In our country TK. 20 is charged as monthly tuition fee from each student. To collect TK.20, we have to invest TK.40 to some extent. Nowhere in the world education is so cheap than ours. In many countries of the world, universities collect money from different sources by own endeavours. They are less dependent on government. In England, University of WarWick and University of Keel where authority earn 80% money from their own resources by their own effort. They earn money by establishing hotel, restaurant, auditorium, fishery project, agricultural project etc. Besides this, they deposit a portion of earned money by doing research and consultancy. Alumni association plays a vital and progressive role in this regard. In SAARC countries, Pakistan also earns 50% of her revenue from her own resources. There are many g evidence around the globe.
In Bangladesh, we should mobilise internal resources so that we can preserve autonomy in the true sense of the term in our public universities. Students' tuition fee should be increased but we must ensure that poor and meritorious student can acquire knowledge through poor fund. But universities should be frugal on the point of expenses. A culture of fairness and accountability should be established in the public universities. Simultaneously we must create a congenial environment for good governance, higher education and research.
The University Ordinance of 1973 has given autonomy to the universities. The main autonomous part is financial autonomy of the universities. On the whole, universities are run by the 100% govt. donation and grants. In the present era, the autonomy of university is a great question mark. The University Ordinance of 1973 was promulgated to control financial misappropriation, low standard of education, political interference, lack of teachers' accountability, terrorism, session jam, delay to publish the result of public examination etc. This was promulgated to attain academic freedom and democratic management of the university affairs. Enormous power is entrusted to university syndicate. The university authority sometime misuse this power. As a result, financial management and educational programmes are disrupted.
In conclusion, it is evident that the system, mission, and the goal of higher education have changed all over the world. In order to keep pace with the changing world, we also need to reshape and reorganise our entire gamut of higher education. The need of the hour is quantitative expansion without undermining quality of higher education, maximum utilization of existing resources and directional change. Like other institutions in a democratic society, universities should take all necessary measures for changing mobilisation of their own resources towards the achievement of the goals for which universities are established.
The writer is a PhD fellow at Dhaka University. e-mail:fakhrulugc@yahoo.com