Md Ashraf Hossein :
Twenty to fifty sponsors contribute Taka five crore in aggregate to form a non-profit foundation, which is manage by a trustee board constituted amongst sponsors. The foundation forms a private university getting approval from University Grand Commission (UGC) fulfilling some pre-conditions to enhance tertiary education and research. As the foundation is non-profit making organization, sponsors even they contributed money cannot take profit, dividend or financial benefits legally.
In Bangladesh private universities’ sponsors are mostly business persons. Their performance hardly goes beyond profits. From audit it was revealed that a private university trustee member (sponsors) took Taka half a crore each as honourium attending meetings in a year. That is, hundred percent or more return in each year against each contribution. What a profitable business from a non-profit making organization!
After knowing this corruption UGC recently had fixed honorarium limit for attending meetings of the foundation and university. Tk 4,000/ to Tk 10,000/ for each member of syndicate for a meeting; Tk 3, 500/ to Tk 8,000/ for a finance committee meeting and Tk 3,000/ to Tk 6,000/ for a academy council and recruitment committee meeting could be received.
UGC deserves thanks for such a decision. Maximum honorarium for a year should have restricted. I hope UGC will limit the maximum honorarium for a sponsor in a year. UGC should also fix maximum limit of charges that could be impose on a student for study. Excessive amount of charges are imposed on students, which bare even to a middle income family student from studying in private university that provides acceptable quality education.
(Md Ashraf Hossein writes from Dhaka)
