Some private universities face red alert
Sunday, 19 December 2010
Chowdhry Md. Usman Ahmmady
The alluring six-storied roadside building in Dhanmondi includes a big shopping mall with a drug centre, club, international restaurant and private university campus. Each floor is busy in receiving customers and consumers of different tastes. Food or any consumer item and education are offered in the same place where students are supposed to be groomed for higher education. How the presence of students be justified if the place is commercially exploited, not educationally promoted?
Many of the private universities have this propensity to the commercialization of education in the name of quality education with equity and excellence.
That the education at private universities is merchandised in the name of quality education was proved time and again with the continual indifference to the warnings given by the government. Out of 51 of them in total, 43 private universities are found guilty, for they violated the Private University Act 2010 by not shifting their campus to their own permanent locations in suitable areas by the stipulated time and for not meeting other criterion to be regarded as full fledged centres of higher education. For example, most of them lack in truly competent teachers, library and auxiliary facilities. Some privately run medical universities, for instance, do not have hospitals for the students to acquire practical medical knowledge.
Out of all private universities, only 8 universities have already shifted to their own campus, 23 have been given Yellow Signal for they own only lands without complete campus whereas 22 were given Red signal, for these have taken no steps to fulfill the mandatory criteria of owning a campus with infrastructure, says a education ministry report on "Implementation of Private University Law 2010".
The notice of red alert added that all 47 universities that are operating their activities in Dhaka should have owned at least one acre of land.
Since their inception, private universities have been used as complementary to the public universities. The burgeoning demand for access to the public universities by students created the justification for private universities. It is worth noting that 5,36,439 students passed in HSC exam in 2010 and out of them only 47% can think of admission in the total number of 29 public universities.
We can say that private universities are providing the quality education if they have enough infrastructural facilities, programmes and courses with competent and specialized faculty as assessed by the University Grants Commission (UGC). Alongside balanced faculty, rich labs and libraries would be also prime requirements.
There is explosion in student enrolment making the private universities money making enterprise. This puts a huge load on teachers. So the quality submerges automatically. Moreover, the quality of a university depends on the number of research projects. As the research culture and opportunities are not abundantly exercised in private universities, the quality is also, thus, reduced.
The commercial mindset and increased number of students enrolment bring forward a lot of vices into the system, like selling of certificates, malpractices in the examination hall, question paper leakage etc.
The same merchandised attitude leads to charging of a huge amount of money from students, which is beyond the reach of middle class people. For example, in 2009, one private university took taka 1,57,813 from each student as educational expenses.
No doubt private universities over the one and a half decade catered to a large number of young people who would have otherwise dropped out.
Ensuring quality education at the higher level requires time while ensuring a congenial place for learning needs noble intention. As already much time is wasted and no solution comes out in the latest meetings with the Association of Private University of Bangladesh, UGC and the education ministry had no other option but come up with promulgation of red-alerts to certain universities. Now it is in the hands of university authorities to fulfill the necessary criteria.
Bangladesh secured 88th position among the best hundred countries in higher education of the world in 2010 whereas India secured 78th and Sri Lanka 66th position, says a report of Newsweek Magazine. This is appalling news for the country. To make a sharp rise in the ranking we have to create proper facilities and promote genuine academics. Without the upgradation in performance, we cannot improve our position in the world ranking. So, private universities along with public ones should come up with their best show to reflect a better face of education.
University campus should be an ideal place. It should be free of din and bustle, where students find spontaneity of life and gather for intense discussion on brighter issues. For a better education a better place is highly expected. If our next generation gets better and quality education and training for making them truly eligible for competently entering the different professional fields, only then the dream of prosperity of the country can come true.
The writer can be reached at jamdani@yahoo.com.
The alluring six-storied roadside building in Dhanmondi includes a big shopping mall with a drug centre, club, international restaurant and private university campus. Each floor is busy in receiving customers and consumers of different tastes. Food or any consumer item and education are offered in the same place where students are supposed to be groomed for higher education. How the presence of students be justified if the place is commercially exploited, not educationally promoted?
Many of the private universities have this propensity to the commercialization of education in the name of quality education with equity and excellence.
That the education at private universities is merchandised in the name of quality education was proved time and again with the continual indifference to the warnings given by the government. Out of 51 of them in total, 43 private universities are found guilty, for they violated the Private University Act 2010 by not shifting their campus to their own permanent locations in suitable areas by the stipulated time and for not meeting other criterion to be regarded as full fledged centres of higher education. For example, most of them lack in truly competent teachers, library and auxiliary facilities. Some privately run medical universities, for instance, do not have hospitals for the students to acquire practical medical knowledge.
Out of all private universities, only 8 universities have already shifted to their own campus, 23 have been given Yellow Signal for they own only lands without complete campus whereas 22 were given Red signal, for these have taken no steps to fulfill the mandatory criteria of owning a campus with infrastructure, says a education ministry report on "Implementation of Private University Law 2010".
The notice of red alert added that all 47 universities that are operating their activities in Dhaka should have owned at least one acre of land.
Since their inception, private universities have been used as complementary to the public universities. The burgeoning demand for access to the public universities by students created the justification for private universities. It is worth noting that 5,36,439 students passed in HSC exam in 2010 and out of them only 47% can think of admission in the total number of 29 public universities.
We can say that private universities are providing the quality education if they have enough infrastructural facilities, programmes and courses with competent and specialized faculty as assessed by the University Grants Commission (UGC). Alongside balanced faculty, rich labs and libraries would be also prime requirements.
There is explosion in student enrolment making the private universities money making enterprise. This puts a huge load on teachers. So the quality submerges automatically. Moreover, the quality of a university depends on the number of research projects. As the research culture and opportunities are not abundantly exercised in private universities, the quality is also, thus, reduced.
The commercial mindset and increased number of students enrolment bring forward a lot of vices into the system, like selling of certificates, malpractices in the examination hall, question paper leakage etc.
The same merchandised attitude leads to charging of a huge amount of money from students, which is beyond the reach of middle class people. For example, in 2009, one private university took taka 1,57,813 from each student as educational expenses.
No doubt private universities over the one and a half decade catered to a large number of young people who would have otherwise dropped out.
Ensuring quality education at the higher level requires time while ensuring a congenial place for learning needs noble intention. As already much time is wasted and no solution comes out in the latest meetings with the Association of Private University of Bangladesh, UGC and the education ministry had no other option but come up with promulgation of red-alerts to certain universities. Now it is in the hands of university authorities to fulfill the necessary criteria.
Bangladesh secured 88th position among the best hundred countries in higher education of the world in 2010 whereas India secured 78th and Sri Lanka 66th position, says a report of Newsweek Magazine. This is appalling news for the country. To make a sharp rise in the ranking we have to create proper facilities and promote genuine academics. Without the upgradation in performance, we cannot improve our position in the world ranking. So, private universities along with public ones should come up with their best show to reflect a better face of education.
University campus should be an ideal place. It should be free of din and bustle, where students find spontaneity of life and gather for intense discussion on brighter issues. For a better education a better place is highly expected. If our next generation gets better and quality education and training for making them truly eligible for competently entering the different professional fields, only then the dream of prosperity of the country can come true.
The writer can be reached at jamdani@yahoo.com.