Performance of private universities must improve
Sunday, 15 May 2011
Salahuddin Ahmed
Ten years back students in Bangladesh merely depended on few public universities for their higher education, as private universities could not come to the scene so quickly. Very few private universities were operating at that time, but there was a sudden turnaround of that situation as a number of private universities started operation in a very short period of time. Over fifty private universities are now operating along with some public universities in Bangladesh. The number fifty clearly depicts the scenario that a major portion of students of this country depend on these institutions to receive higher education to get better prepared for the challenging life. It might seem bizarre to think that this huge number of private universities are operating in such a small country like Bangladesh. But for the large number of people in this country it is rather necessary to have more higher education institutions. What should be realised is that all these universities must follow proper guidelines, because they supposedly have to play a huge role to make our nation far stronger, which at the end of the day our nation demands. As number of seats for students is limited in the public universities in Bangladesh, and the lack of necessary steps taken by our government to open up new public universities for the growing number of students, a number of private universities came forward to offer higher education to this large number of students. As we all know there were some serious controversies for a number of universities to operate legally, but the bottom line is all these universities have students on board, who they need to educate in a proper way. It is not a big deal that a number of private universities operate in Bangladesh; we should try to ensure that these institutions operate in a proper way maintaining all rules and regulations for an education institution. There is no doubt that among these universities some of them try to manipulate students by offering education which ultimately they could not maintain. When we open up a university, we need to realise that we have a big task in our hand which is to educate our students. These universities take a good amount of money from these students, which do not seem to be a problem as long as these students receive better education in return. To get better prepared for the challenging life, students in Bangladesh must receive education which these universities are capable of providing them to a greater extent. As the whole world is progressing too fast, these universities need to make sure that they provide their students with adequate education with access to internet and modern books and journals. It is obvious that many of these universities do not have these resources for their students, which contradict the ethical issues as these universities initially promise to get their students these resources. It is conceivable that many of these universities offer false promises to the students. Some of the universities even claim that they are affiliated with some of the notable universities around the globe, which is baseless and phony. These attractions proved to be effective as they bring quite a few students under their banner, but down the road these students become ultimate sufferers. Apart from this fake affiliation, some of the universities do not even have good teachers to take classes but they have been doing their operation with no measure of control by the government. These types of actions should be stopped in no time and these universities should be banned in no time. When these universities are in operation, they need to be careful about the three categories of management morality: the moral manager, the immoral manager and the amoral manager. We all know that immoral managers of companies have no regards for ethical standards and do not watch out for the interest for others. Many times these companies manipulate others and do also distort legal rules and regulation. Some of our private universities tend to follow this principles as they manipulate students to look out for their own self interest, but they do not know that they ultimately destroy our nation as their students would have nothing to offer to our nation after receiving a so called 'degree'. All these universities should follow high standards of ethical behavior. This is obvious that these universities would be ambitious and would look for the ways of powerful urge to succeed, but they must pursue success in business within the confines of the spirit of what is ethical and legal. There seems to be a profit making attitude all around the corner with these private universities. Many public university teachers try to get into renowned private universities merely for the desire of making more money. First of all these private universities sell them through these renowned public university teachers and in other way public university students also are deprived of getting knowledge from these teachers. It looks like we are playing game with the education of our country and no one is there to tackle it. A comprehensive rules and regulations are indispensible for these private universities to stop this cruel business that would ultimately destroy our nation. Private universities, without a shadow of doubt, can play a major role to make our students educated to ultimately make our country stronger. But the owners and management of these institutions should remember that they are not only doing business, they are directly responsible for providing suitable higher education and developing human resources. Our government should have comprehensive rules and regulations and most importantly they need to make these institutions abide by these rules. Salahuddin Ahmed is Lecturer, State University of Bangladesh, e-mail: sahmed@ashalnd.edu
Ten years back students in Bangladesh merely depended on few public universities for their higher education, as private universities could not come to the scene so quickly. Very few private universities were operating at that time, but there was a sudden turnaround of that situation as a number of private universities started operation in a very short period of time. Over fifty private universities are now operating along with some public universities in Bangladesh. The number fifty clearly depicts the scenario that a major portion of students of this country depend on these institutions to receive higher education to get better prepared for the challenging life. It might seem bizarre to think that this huge number of private universities are operating in such a small country like Bangladesh. But for the large number of people in this country it is rather necessary to have more higher education institutions. What should be realised is that all these universities must follow proper guidelines, because they supposedly have to play a huge role to make our nation far stronger, which at the end of the day our nation demands. As number of seats for students is limited in the public universities in Bangladesh, and the lack of necessary steps taken by our government to open up new public universities for the growing number of students, a number of private universities came forward to offer higher education to this large number of students. As we all know there were some serious controversies for a number of universities to operate legally, but the bottom line is all these universities have students on board, who they need to educate in a proper way. It is not a big deal that a number of private universities operate in Bangladesh; we should try to ensure that these institutions operate in a proper way maintaining all rules and regulations for an education institution. There is no doubt that among these universities some of them try to manipulate students by offering education which ultimately they could not maintain. When we open up a university, we need to realise that we have a big task in our hand which is to educate our students. These universities take a good amount of money from these students, which do not seem to be a problem as long as these students receive better education in return. To get better prepared for the challenging life, students in Bangladesh must receive education which these universities are capable of providing them to a greater extent. As the whole world is progressing too fast, these universities need to make sure that they provide their students with adequate education with access to internet and modern books and journals. It is obvious that many of these universities do not have these resources for their students, which contradict the ethical issues as these universities initially promise to get their students these resources. It is conceivable that many of these universities offer false promises to the students. Some of the universities even claim that they are affiliated with some of the notable universities around the globe, which is baseless and phony. These attractions proved to be effective as they bring quite a few students under their banner, but down the road these students become ultimate sufferers. Apart from this fake affiliation, some of the universities do not even have good teachers to take classes but they have been doing their operation with no measure of control by the government. These types of actions should be stopped in no time and these universities should be banned in no time. When these universities are in operation, they need to be careful about the three categories of management morality: the moral manager, the immoral manager and the amoral manager. We all know that immoral managers of companies have no regards for ethical standards and do not watch out for the interest for others. Many times these companies manipulate others and do also distort legal rules and regulation. Some of our private universities tend to follow this principles as they manipulate students to look out for their own self interest, but they do not know that they ultimately destroy our nation as their students would have nothing to offer to our nation after receiving a so called 'degree'. All these universities should follow high standards of ethical behavior. This is obvious that these universities would be ambitious and would look for the ways of powerful urge to succeed, but they must pursue success in business within the confines of the spirit of what is ethical and legal. There seems to be a profit making attitude all around the corner with these private universities. Many public university teachers try to get into renowned private universities merely for the desire of making more money. First of all these private universities sell them through these renowned public university teachers and in other way public university students also are deprived of getting knowledge from these teachers. It looks like we are playing game with the education of our country and no one is there to tackle it. A comprehensive rules and regulations are indispensible for these private universities to stop this cruel business that would ultimately destroy our nation. Private universities, without a shadow of doubt, can play a major role to make our students educated to ultimately make our country stronger. But the owners and management of these institutions should remember that they are not only doing business, they are directly responsible for providing suitable higher education and developing human resources. Our government should have comprehensive rules and regulations and most importantly they need to make these institutions abide by these rules. Salahuddin Ahmed is Lecturer, State University of Bangladesh, e-mail: sahmed@ashalnd.edu