Dr. Forqan Uddin Ahmed :
Private universities started in the country in 1992 with the dream of curbing the trend of migration as it was not possible to meet the growing demand for higher education for all students in government universities. For the first few years after its establishment, the private universities were on the right track. But since the late nineties, many private universities have started to grow unjudiciously with the mentality of making huge profits with small and risk-free investments. Education or business has been a problem since then.
Late Professor Jamilur Reza Choudhury opined thatthere is a common complaint of lack of research in private universities. Not one university of Bangladesh – public or private – has been able to make a place in the top 200-300 universities of the world or even the region. This is unfair from the point of view of private universities.
Professor Abdul Mannan, an educationist and former UGC chariman remarked that the problem arises in universities where the activities of members of the board of trustees are not transparent. Members of Board of Trustees can often be very influential. At present, establishing a university has become a status symbol. And sometimes, even loan defaulters seek to and are able to set up universities. Problems further arise when the Board of Trustees interferes in the daily activities of universities. The VC’s role is very limited in many private universities and their main task is to implement the decisions taken by the board of trustees.
Professor Atiqul Islam comments that among various challenges we face, providing residence facilities to the students is crucial. We have 22,000 students but there are not that many dorm halls. If there were university dorms, there would be dorm/house tutors who could keep an eye on students. Another problem is the recruitment of teachers. World class universities such as Oxford and Harvard do not see the origin of their faculties. In our country, we cannot hire world class academicians because we can not match their salary expectation. In Bangladesh, we do not have enough qualities PhD staff to recruit from. Private universities are not allowed to offer PhD in any subject. So where will you get good teaching staff?
Professor Syed Saad Andaleeb of BRAC University states that, we need to focus on imparting basic skills to the students: critical thinking, good communication, basic math, digitally competence and global awareness. Another important sector is research. Most of the faculties we recruit locally do not have any knowledge or exposure to research. How can you expect them to do research? We also need to focus on the supply chain of education. We cannot change everything through four years of university education. Our plans on developing our student force need to begin from primary education.
In fact, the way the private universities are moving forward, the bright future of the nation will be plunged into darkness. There are no auspicious signs of recovery from this situation. In this situation, where is the Ministry of Education, including UGC? Appropriate steps must be taken to internationalize the quality of higher education in the face of all obstacles by putting an end to such unscrupulous practices of private universities. Otherwise, the nation will fall and be lost ultimately. Private universities continue to contaminate the progressive trend for commercial purposes and are involoved in certificate forgery.
Unemployment is on the rise in the society even due to the lack of unskilled, career oriented and creative education. And under this pressure of unemployment, poverty is becoming more and more evident in the country. The concerned quarters of the government must pay special attention to the issues and take appropriate measures for its remedy.
(The writer is former Deputy Director General, Bangladesh Ansar & VDP).
