Professor (Dr) M Alimullah Miyan :
Abstract
Higher education imparts knowledge and skills for enabling people to contribute and enjoy good standard of life. However, higher education is critical for social mobility in developing societies only when it is accessible and inclusive. Achieving equitable access is highly challenging in developing societies, like Bangladesh where only 10.6% of the aspirants get access. The deterring factors for low access include poverty, affordability, accommodation and elitist perception of higher education. The Knowledge Based Area Development: A Step Towards Community Self-Reliance (KBAD) is an outreach individual-to-community based approach for achieving inclusive higher education through enhancing access that has promise of helping impoverished communities to break the poverty cycle and move into prosperity.
1. Introduction
Knowledge is the engine of growth for any nation. Advanced level of instrumental knowledge and skills enable people to contribute towards national development. All over the world, economies are changing as more and more, knowledge supplants physical capital as the source of present and future growth. As knowledge becomes more important, so does higher education.
The quality of knowledge generated within higher education institutions, and its availability to the wider economy, is becoming increasingly critical to national competitiveness. According to UNESCO, higher education is a long term social investment in productivity, social cohesion and cultural development. Higher education enhances knowledge generation and cultural development including institutional autonomy, intellectual freedom and a culture of peace based on democracy, tolerance and mutual respect. A well-functioning higher education sector can lead to enhanced quality in basic education too.
Funding is central to the success of higher education system in terms of both intuition building and facilitation of access specially in the developing societies.
The traditional public funding is falling far short in meeting quantitative expansion and qualitative parameters. Hence, alternative funding modalities are gaining ground. Non-government (private) universities are emerging as a substantial supplement and more importantly, as a model for market-driven, dynamic and quality higher education.
In developing societies, despite notable expansion in both government and non-government universities, the question of accessibility and equity remains as a burning policy issue. Wider social mobility through increased accessibility by marginal communities to higher education is an emerging strategy adopted by many developing societies.
The Knowledge Based Area Development (KBAD) approach elaborated herein envisages equitable and balanced proliferation of higher educational benefits to underdeveloped regions and marginalized communities embracing them into the mainstream development process for attaining community self reliance through an outreach individual-to-community based inclusive approach.
Abstract
Higher education imparts knowledge and skills for enabling people to contribute and enjoy good standard of life. However, higher education is critical for social mobility in developing societies only when it is accessible and inclusive. Achieving equitable access is highly challenging in developing societies, like Bangladesh where only 10.6% of the aspirants get access. The deterring factors for low access include poverty, affordability, accommodation and elitist perception of higher education. The Knowledge Based Area Development: A Step Towards Community Self-Reliance (KBAD) is an outreach individual-to-community based approach for achieving inclusive higher education through enhancing access that has promise of helping impoverished communities to break the poverty cycle and move into prosperity.
1. Introduction
Knowledge is the engine of growth for any nation. Advanced level of instrumental knowledge and skills enable people to contribute towards national development. All over the world, economies are changing as more and more, knowledge supplants physical capital as the source of present and future growth. As knowledge becomes more important, so does higher education.
The quality of knowledge generated within higher education institutions, and its availability to the wider economy, is becoming increasingly critical to national competitiveness. According to UNESCO, higher education is a long term social investment in productivity, social cohesion and cultural development. Higher education enhances knowledge generation and cultural development including institutional autonomy, intellectual freedom and a culture of peace based on democracy, tolerance and mutual respect. A well-functioning higher education sector can lead to enhanced quality in basic education too.
Funding is central to the success of higher education system in terms of both intuition building and facilitation of access specially in the developing societies.
The traditional public funding is falling far short in meeting quantitative expansion and qualitative parameters. Hence, alternative funding modalities are gaining ground. Non-government (private) universities are emerging as a substantial supplement and more importantly, as a model for market-driven, dynamic and quality higher education.
In developing societies, despite notable expansion in both government and non-government universities, the question of accessibility and equity remains as a burning policy issue. Wider social mobility through increased accessibility by marginal communities to higher education is an emerging strategy adopted by many developing societies.
The Knowledge Based Area Development (KBAD) approach elaborated herein envisages equitable and balanced proliferation of higher educational benefits to underdeveloped regions and marginalized communities embracing them into the mainstream development process for attaining community self reliance through an outreach individual-to-community based inclusive approach.
