Private universities- the miserable study condition

Dr. Forqan Uddin Ahmed

Dr. Forqan Uddin Ahmed

From the beginning of the journey of private universities in the country, except for a handful of universities, various newspapers and magazines are publishing news reports on inadequate infrastructure, fraudulent activities including illegal campuses and corrupt activities. The government and the UGC have also called for administrative action against private universities involved in irregularities at various times. Very often it is taken as an argent state of affairs, but things do not change. Powerful entrepreneurs of private universities who are involved in irregularities do not seem to care much about the directives or policies of the Ministry of Education and UGC. Due to the scarcity of seats in public universities, private universities were officially sanctioned in the country.

Most of the private universities attract students with false and enticing offers and advertisements without adequate learning environment and inadequate space in residential buildings. They are trading with the guarantee of giving higher education certificate without ensuring quality education system by charging lakhs of rupees for admission in university and thousands of rupees per month. 

In addition, there are conflicts of interest, litigation and squabbling between entrepreneurs and investors over the ownership and appointment of VCs of many private universities. As a result, students are also facing fears, tensions and uncertainties about their future.

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. According to a survey conducted by the University Grants Commission, the standard of 16 is 'average' and the standard of many is 'very bad' 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 like unjudiciously with the mentality of making huge profits with small and risk-free investments. Education or business has been a problem since then. So many private universities are being sanctioned but the quality of education is not being ensured. Many private universities have moved away from social responsibility or service mentality and engaging in business instead of teaching, which may not be desirable in modern and civilized society. This is a threating for the nation. There are many complaints about research activities in public universities. 

As the present government is focused on improving the quality of institutions, various projects are being implemented with the funding of the World Bank. High speed data communication networks are being set up for inter-university and international communication for research. During the tenure of this government, an agreement was signed between UGC and Power Grid Company of Bangladesh for the use of the company's extensive optical fiber network across the country for 20 years. The use of online system has been added to the admission process in public universities. So far, 35 universities are accepting applications and fees for admission through online and SMS. The present government under the leadership of Hon'ble Prime Minister ‍Sheikh Hasina has taken several landmark steps in the field of education and as a result higher  education in the country is advancing at the expected pace. During the time of the present government, the turbulent situation in higher education has been quickly normalized. Private universities need to have moral and social responsibility in imparting quality education to the students to develop them as good citizens and develop their creativity and intellectual thinking. 

Some notable professors and VCs have had their explanations on the prevailing adverse situation, residential position, VCs role, research status and ranking in context to the international standards.

Late professor Jamilur Reza Choudhury opined that there 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. Most enrolments in private universities are at the undergraduate level. 

What research can be done at the undergraduate level? Teachers cannot conduct research alone; most research is usually done by graduate students in top universities. But there are success stories even here. The American Society of Civil Engineers has listed one of our students as one of the ten young faces of civil engineering globally in 2015. At present, 95 private universities have the permission to run their operations, out of which 84 are functioning. The number of students studying in private universities is, to be exact, 4,63,767, out of which 40 percent are women. There are 37 on campus public universities.

Professor Abdul Mannan, an educationist and former UGC chariman remarks 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 interfere 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. Board of trustees need to be urged to leave the education of universities to the faculty members and the academicians.

Professor Atiqul Islam passes tha 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? It is recommended that at least some private universities are given the scope to enroll PhD students on selective subjects where the institutions have expertise.

Professor Syed Saad Andaleeb, 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? So we must invest in the capacity building of PhD programmes. If we want to generate our own resources, we need PhD programmes. Otherwise our brilliant staff will go abroad, and many of them might never return. We can introduce multidisciplinary subjects to keep pace with the changing world. For example, private universities have biology, engineering andmedical science. If we put them together you will have biomedical engineering. This is an emerging field. Our private universities are capable enough to introduce these programmes. We do not think we need to take the permission of UGC to introduce these programmes. 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.

Finally, we can say that, 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 will be lost.

Private universities knowingly and consciously for commercial purposes continue to contaminate the progressive trend of results and certificate forgery education. The results of private universities are dropping out of the world competition. 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.

(Former Deputy Director General, Bangladesh Ansar and VDP, Writer, columnist and researcher)