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Bangladesh's unchecked expansion of universities without ensuring quality could be a textbook example of how to undermine academic standards, devalue degrees, and ultimately burden the nation with subpar graduates. First, the authorities ignored the quality of teachers. Then they ignored the quality of students. There have been rumors that teachers were being asked to liberally grade examination papers so that the greatest number of students could get the highest possible marks. Then the nation had the rude awakening that a large number of these high achievers in board exams and top degree holders from universities could not find jobs that match their academic qualifications.
A majority of the new universities are scandalously riddled with so many irregularities and shortcomings that one has to question the very purpose of establishing these universities.
Bangladesh currently has 170 universities - 55 public and 115 private. Over half of these institutions were established in the past 15 years under the deposed Awami League government. Of the 87 universities established during this period, 26 are public and 61 are private.
Speaking at a recent seminar, University Grants Commission (UGC) member Professor Mohammad Tanzimuddin Khan, highlighted the dire state of these new universities. He rightly questioned whether many of them even deserved to be called a "university."
What happened to those universities is not hard to understand. The rapid expansion of universities has been largely driven by political considerations. While the authoritarian regime took credit for expanding university education to every district, the increasing number of institutions gave it an opportunity to recruit party loyalists as well as attract new supporters in the academic arena. Alongside this, rampant corruption in recruitment and procurement further compromised institutional integrity. As a result, most of these universities are yet to gain a strong footing, plagued by infrastructure deficits and resource shortages, including quality teachers, equipment, and laboratories.
A glaring example of this crisis is that the 21 universities that began operations between 2014-15 and 2017-18 continue to function from rented buildings without permanent campuses. Lacking essential academic facilities such as well-equipped classrooms, laboratories and libraries, these institutions fail to provide a conducive learning environment. The situation is particularly dire in science, engineering, biology, and agriculture departments, where functional laboratories are crucial for practical learning.
Professor Tanzimuddin Khan described this as the "suicide" of higher education in Bangladesh-or more precisely, "educide." If left unchecked, this crisis will not only undermine the future of academia but will also have devastating implications for the country's socio-economic progress. Universities that fail to ensure academic excellence not only produce unskilled graduates but also become a burden on the state.
Considering the overall situation, a government-formed task force on redefining economic strategies for inclusive and sustainable development has recommended reducing the number of universities in the country through mergers. The task force members believe that a reduction in the number of universities could ensure better utilisation of the limited education budget and improve the universities' positions in international rankings.
Dr. Fahmida Khatun, Executive Director of the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), who played a key role in formulating the task force's recommendations on education, said, "Many universities in our country are of poor quality. The merger recommendation was made to ensure better facilities and quality education. In this case, some public universities can be merged with other public universities, and the same approach can be applied to private universities. However, this doesn't mean universities will be shut down. Their campuses will remain in the same locations but operate under a single name."
She further explained, "For public universities, the government itself can take the initiative to facilitate the merger. For private universities, the government can set minimum standards that they must meet within a specified period. If any university fails to meet these standards, they will have to go through the merger process."
Amid such a disturbing scenario of the country's higher education sector, it is perplexing to see a group of students from Titumir College launching a movement demanding the transformation of their college into an independent university. After blocking roads and rail lines for six consecutive days -causing immense suffering to commuters - they withdrew the blockade on Monday, issuing a seven-day ultimatum for their demand to be met.
Many, however, find little logic in their demand. How can students, after enrolling in a college, demand its transformation into a university? If the government succumbs to such pressure and grants Titumir College university status, this could potentially embolden other colleges recently disaffiliated from Dhaka University, to launch similar movements, demanding independent university status. There is an ongoing discussion regarding the formation of a clustered university for the seven colleges, including Titumir, and the government has already formed a committee to this end. Against this backdrop, Titumir students are seemingly overplaying their hand by agitating for a separate university.
Instead of agitating for an independent university, the students would do well to demand qualitative improvements in their academic programmes and enhanced facilities. And, the sooner they return to their studies, the better. Ultimately, it is the quality of education, the skills acquired, and the depth of knowledge gained will determine their future success, not merely the name of the institution they graduate from.
One must not forget that education is not a matter of luck or merely acquiring certificates; it is something that must be earned through hard work. Yet, many students seem to have lost sight of this fundamental principle in their pursuit of education. The ever-growing instances of students blocking roads much to the suffering and disgust of the people proves that the entire education system has been reduced to a certificate-giving process, where students only crave credentials rather than acquiring knowledge.