Upping allocations for public universities

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THE University Grants Commission (UGC) sometime ago submitted a report. It disclosed that only about 12 per cent of the budget of the public universities are spent on education and the rest goes mainly to pay salaries and other allowances to teachers and general employees of these universities. The scanty amount spent on education underlines the pressing necessity to increase governmental allocations for the public universities although the same in no way diminishes the need for taking steps by the university administrations to strike a balance between amounts spent on education and amounts utilised to pay the teachers and general employees.
The public universities have the opportunity to also increase their fees which are very low. Guardians are not likely to mind reasonable and bearable increases in fees if they realise that the same would then be spent on providing better education. There is also scope for the public universities to earn substantial amounts of money from undertaking research for the public and the private sector and also discharging professional services to them.
Abu Imran
Azimpur Staff Quarter
Dhaka