Farook Ahmed :
Despite steady decline in the standard of our higher education, the numbers of unmerited PhD degree holders are exponentially increasing like mushrooms. A few institutions that confer such degrees have veritably made PhD certificates like that of the commodities of a grocer’s shop. These institutions claim to be affiliated with renowned foreign universities and bestow degrees on behalf of their names. Their eye-catching glossy certificates bear the exotic monograms, seals and signatures of white men that add cosmetic value to the certificates. It seems that there exists no authority to look into this grave matter. The genuine PhD holders feel dejected and annoyed when they see that undeserving persons are facilely obtaining PhD degrees from a few institutions which are not even competent to give bachelor degree certificates.
It can be said for certainty that perhaps Bangladesh has the largest number of PhD degree holders in this subcontinent through the courtesy of AW University, New Castle and like others. These institutes have uncountable numbers of ready-made sub-standard doctoral thesis on different disciplines on their nicely decorated shelves.
Aspirant candidates can pick up from the shelf of their own choice ready-to-submit doctoral disquisitions for a prestigious PhD degree. For this the candidate has only to pay a hefty amount of money. The only trouble or pain a candidate undertakes to procure a PhD certificate is to count the money with his or her own fingers. Impartial investigation reveals that Tk.2,50,000—3,00,000 are mulcted from each aspirant candidates.
In our country, a PhD degree has both social and economic value. It increases the stature of a holder. Both in the Job and marriage markets, it has overwhelming sway. The prefix “Dr” before a name obviously enhances the fame of the holder. Being conscious of the growing benefits of having a PhD degree, undeserving people scramble to acquire the degree by any means. The institutes that confer such degree have a fake long list of the names of supervisors who are supposed to guide the candidates to prepare their dissertations. Names of renowned teachers of public universities are shown in the list as supervisors. We have checked the list with the concerned teachers and found it totally sham. Mr. Mukit Khan (name changed), a deputy secretary who recently obtained a PhD certificate from the AW University told us that he had bought the degree in order to expedite his promotion to the rank of joint secretary. But he could not succeed in his attempt to secure his promotion because the promotion committee rebuffed his AW university PhD degree. In the process he lost both money and prestige.
Now PhD degree men are to be found in every profession right from police, businessmen, private teachers, office clerks, private executives, bankers and politicians to Mullahs. The AW University can rightfully claim the credit for producing so many PhD degree holders that one day it will find its name in the Guinness world record book being the greatest begetter of PhD degrees in the world. Now a pertinent question arises—- can we allow a PhD degree to be so superficial, so cheap and so easy-peasy? A teacher of Dhaka University who had had a PhD degree from Tokyo University regretfully told us that he had slashed the tag “Dr”. from his name in utter shame when he saw so many undeserving persons have already arrogated the most prestigious degree so effortlessly and so shamefully.
One Academician opined that if such pseudo institutes are permitted to exist any longer, days are not far off when cobbler, fishermen, sweepers and shop-keepers will have PhD certificates. Many private universities have already degraded the standard and value of our higher education to the detriment of the nation. We need to preclude the alarming deterioration of our higher education right at this moment. Even a bit delay will cost the nation dearly.
We propose that government should make laws so that no private institution can confer or act as an intermediary to arrange or procure phoney PhD degrees from any source. Legal actions should be taken against those institutes that have so long fraudulently given PhD degrees to many unsuspecting candidates. Conferment of doctoral degrees should be strictly in the hands of public universities. All PhD certificates given by the so-called private institutes should be checked and verified by an expert team of Dhaka University.
The UGC need to be more agile and stringent in respect of punishing the rogue private universities which are undermining the standard of our higher education. It is often reported in the press that a few private universities are prosecuting certificate business. We know that UGC has identified such institutions but failed to take any exemplary punitive measures against them for unknown reasons. All the educational certificates and degrees of a Vice-chancellor of a private university have been found to be doctored and bogus upon verification by the UGC. The UGC has sent a detailed report to the Education Ministry for removal of the alleged VC but he is still firmly ensconced in his post. The PhD degree of the VC was also found to be fake. The alleged VC stated in his Bio-data that he has obtained one PhD degree from India and another one from Canada. Upon investigation, UGC has unearthed that both his PhD degrees are spurious.
He blurted out in a light moment that he had bought his PhD certificates. To be eligible for the post of Vice chancellor or professor of private universities, a PhD degree is a sine qua non for a candidate. This is one of the reasons for unethical intense drive for obtaining a doctoral degree by any fair or foul means.
Let the UGC rise to the occasion and deliver the service which the nation expects from it. The torpor and passivity of both the UGC and the Education Ministry have already taken a heavy toll on our higher education sector. We need to realize that the nation is literally bent under the weight of fictitious PhD degree certificate holders.
(The writer is ex DIG of Police).
