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Originally, doctor means teacher in Latin and, in medieval Europe, a doctorate was awarded as a licence to teach Latin at a university. As the earliest records go, the term 'doctor' referred to various Christian authorities including the Apostles and church fathers who taught and interpreted the Bible. However, with the passage of time, universities the world over began to award doctorate, PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) degree to a student at her/his highest academic level after the completion of a course or research. In other words, the PhD degree is a mark of academic excellence on the part a person who holds it. In that case, having a large number of PhDs holders is no doubt a matter of pride for a society. With its 51,704 holders of PhD or doctorates at the moment, as reported by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) based on its Population and Housing Census 2022, Bangladesh should definitely be proud with so many doctorates. Maybe a significant proportion of them are geniuses, too?
And from the breakdown of the number (of PhDs), it could also be found that over 1.5 per cent of the doctorates (783 in number) are aged between 20 and 24! It is indeed music to our ears. The nation should be well-informed about these talented students, who could achieve the academic feats at such an early age! The nation should also know their fields of research and the universities that awarded them the PhDs.
And it is also important to know how many of the doctorates of different age groups are employed and where they are employed. Also, according to a BBS report, close to 0.8 million graduates were unemployed in 2022 and the Labour Force Survey (LFS) 2022 report released in the last week of October says that the unemployment rate was the highest at 12 per cent among youths who had tertiary level of education. It would be an interesting piece of information as to how all the doctorates coming out of our universities are faring in the job market when so many graduates are without any job and their number is rising.
So, one could well ask how the country is going to utilise all these highly educated people, when it cannot provide employment to a large number of normal graduates. The question is, can the nation afford to spend its scarce financial resources just for offering degrees that the society cannot utilise?
Regarding the universities that are offering PhD courses, it is expected that they have adequate resources including experienced supervisors, support staffs, required financial and research-related resources. And it is also important to know the quality and source of the research funds.
The question arises because Bangladeshi universities, both public and private, are constantly losing their global standing as respectable institutions of higher learning. In this connection, the latest World University Rankings 2024, published by the Times Higher Education (THE) shows that none of the Bangladeshi universities could secure a position among top 800 universities of the world. And only nine universities could somehow scramble to secure some positions between 801st and 1000th places. When this is the overall picture of our institutions of higher learning, one wonders if the doctorates being produced by these universities would be able to win the recognition of international universities of repute. On this score, some educationists have their reservations about the way doctorate degrees are being offered in many local universities. For, if a large number of doctorates does not reflect a growth in research and scholarship in a society, then what is the use of so many PhD holders?