Prof. Dr. Md. Aktaruzzaman :
In December 2013 at Melbourne Australia one of my fellow Bangladeshi students came to me with a report that Australian Computer Society (ACS) assessed his BSc degree from Bangladesh as Associate Diploma and advised him to pursue another year of study to complete his BSc equivalent in Australia. Initially I thought that it was a mistake but in early 2014 several students got similar assessment from Engineers Australia, VETASSESS, ACS, etc. One of the degree provider institutions is within TOP-5 universities in Bangladesh in terms of students’ choice of admission. Such cases have already happened to our university graduates at different developed countries or may happen in future.
Alarming but not surprising! In the global commercial world, education is no longer a service only but rather a business also. Australia, Canada, the USA or the UK bear the same philosophy – earning money for quality education. In 2018, Australian universities contributed $41 billion to its economy and supported a total of 260,000 full-time jobs. Notably, 325,000 students completed their degrees at Australia’s 39 universities. Rankings played an important role in their success stories.
In late 2021 the United Nations General Assembly considered Bangladesh as a middle-income country and the government has envisioned to become an upper middle-income country by 2031 and developed country by 2041. Most of the developed countries are organizing ‘Education Fair – Study in X, Y, Z Country’ in different parts of the world. In 2041’s developed Bangladesh, can we expect at least 10 of our universities ranked within TOP 300 – 500 at the Times, QS or any reputed rankings? India has already started ‘Study in India’ campaign, what is our plan of inviting foreign students from Asia, Africa, Arab regions? and thus, contributing to university rankings and national economy.
The Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman dreamt ‘Sonar Bangla’ – a hunger and corruption free, prosperous Bangladesh. Bangabandhu recognized the importance of quality education and initiated the transformation of building a knowledge-based economy to establish University Grants Commission of Bangladesh (UGC) on the very first Victory Day of Bangladesh – 16 December 1972 and later UGC started its operation officially in 1973. On the verge of 50 years of UGC, Bangabandhu International Rankings of Universities in Bangladesh (BIRUB) could be a time befitting initiative to keep pace with the global transnational education ecosystem.
According to ADB, Bangladesh is experiencing the highest GDP growth in Asia despite the global turmoil of Covid-19. Now the government may introduce Higher Education Loan Program (HELP), which could have several schemes such as full-free, govt-subsidised, and full-fee payment based on taxpayer income and society needs. Tuition fees and opportunities are required to set for attracting large number of international students through blended and online learning and promoting it through our diplomatic missions.This trend can help us to stop yearly $6 billion remittance outflow from the country.
The Times Higher Education ranking indicators and their percentage of contributions to overall rankings are: (i) Teaching [30], (ii) Research [30], (iii) Citations [30], (iv) International Outlook [7.5], and (v) Industry Income [2.5]. In the QS Rankings, indicators and their percentage of contributions to overall rankings are: (i) Academic Reputation [40], (ii) Employer Reputation [10], (iii) Faculty Student Ratio [20], (iv) Citations per Faculty [20], (v) International Faculty Ratio [5], and (vi) International Students Ratio [5]. Overall score is calculated in both systems out of 100.
Now let’s focus on our context. Most of the Australian universities have 40 percent international students and have a good number of international faculties and collaboration whereas our good universities have only 0-3 percent international students and a very smaller number of international faculties and collaboration. The country must improve its universities international outlook by attracting large number of foreign students, Bangladeshi origin international expert faculty members, and foreign universities for collaboration.
Although our good universities have comparatively better student-teacher ratio (10-20) as compared to Monash Australia (44) for instance, we have below average teaching reputation, less institutional income, and low number of postgraduate students and faculties with PhDs. We have been doing increasingly better in citations but poor in research productivity, income and reputation. We have to transform research into products or services to community, and strengthen industry and academia linkage, thus create an innovative education ecosystem.
There should have a national ranking system of universities in Bangladesh following similar strategies of Times, QS or at our own customized format.When the universities will have income from international students and external research grants, they can bring visiting professors and scholars from abroad, particularly those of Bangladeshi origin. Not all universities should offer courses and programs to international students. Competitive but congenial academic atmosphere needs to be created for both teachers and universities. It will improve our graduate education and research, and the quality of publications and international exposures. Performance based investment, research grants, academic excellence needs to be introduced in a systematic way with transparency.
Bangladesh is emerging as a role model for many countries across the world. The concept of Digital Bangladesh is followed in different countries like Digital Cameroon, Digital Pakistan, Digital Nigeria etc. It will be really disgraceful if there are no good-ranked universities in Developed and Prosperous Bangladesh in 2041.We have many advantages such as our manpower cost is low, undergrad education quality is good, teacher student ratio is better, etc. Now we have to focus on the international exposures in terms of both students and faculties as well as graduate research, publications, funding, and commercialization of research. If we want to see our universities as a Brand of Education Bangladesh globally, it is the right time for our policy makers to initiate competitive and transparent rankings and facilitate prominent institutions to meet the local needs and excel in today’s transnational education.
(Prof. Dr. Md. Aktaruzzaman, Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), Daffodil International University)
