Down the ladder

It was my first morning in London. I had a long flight of over eighteen hours from Dhaka. I was residing in a hall of residence of the university. The breakfast hours were fixed. I got up and made my way to the queue. I was served an egg with slices of ham on top. The other items were to be picked from the self-serving food trays. I told the server that I did not eat pork. The lady took the slices of ham from my plate. How could I eat the egg that was almost under the ham? Besides, both egg and ham were fried in the same pan of oil. I was miserable not knowing what to do. There was an Egyptian behind me. He made a sympathetic gesture. I turned a vegan for the morning.

My experience in the classroom was similar. I was the odd person attired in a suit. As we were seated the professor arrived. Nobody stood up. We were all students of about the same age. As the lecture was in progress, one student had a question. He addressed the professor by his name. And then there were some who drank coffee from paper cups. Otherwise, the class was not different from what we had back at home. At the hostel dinner was served at seven, a bit earlier than my normal time. That is how my first day in London ended.

The days passed quickly as I got settled in the new environment. I changed to wearing casual dresses and began watching soap operas in the common room. The more difficult part of adjustment was the bland British food in the cafeteria. However, the year passed quickly and exams were held in the usual manner but a small difference. There were no invigilators in the exam hall once the questions were distributed. The silence was pin-drop as the exam was in progress, no one talking or taking advantage of the situation. It may be one of the reasons why the university has stayed at the top in the global ranking of universities.

As I teach in the classroom here at home, the students are advised to aim high, to emulate the best as I have seen in the West. That is good practice. Unfortunately, with the passing days the reverse is happening. We are drifting backwards, one reason why there is no university in the country that can claim an honourable place in the league of universities of the world. It was not like that in the earlier days when many glorious names adorned the university. That is now gone. National politics rules supreme in universities all over the country. The management of the universities has been compromised leading to systemic erosion down to lower layers of administration affecting classroom teaching in turn. This is the reality creating a dangerous void that affects the minds who are supposed to lead the nation into the future.

An incident in my department rings a bell. A senior professor was threatened with a knife in the car park as a student was not happy with his grade. No action was taken and the incident was quietly forgotten. This is because the Deans and higher authorities are chosen for their political allegiance bypassing the academic requirement leading to a domino situation. Grisham's law is fully operational as the bad drives away the good. Even the award of doctoral degrees is compromised as both external and internal examiners are chosen from the same university, in some cases the department. The requirement of publication is also compromised through internal journals of departments that disregard norms of refereeing. Departments are not required to aim high of being centre of excellence. The global accreditation that rules supreme elsewhere is sadly absent. Some departments choose the shortcut to softer accreditation by neighbouring countries. The award of research degrees in such countries is compromised through the use of shortcuts such as skipping the oral defence. This is how public universities operate today and they rule academic programmes of the country. Private universities are in a worse situation as can be seen from their performance in various recruitment tests, for example, run by institutions such as banks. These universities further suffer from lack of corporate governance where owners use the university for personal gains in terms of revenue and social respectability.

This is ominous for the country, if it wants to move ahead in the league of nations. The country is now awaiting upgradation from the Least Developed Country (LDC) status. According to the World Economic Forum, the move to a Developed status will require major inputs from human resources as opposed to the LDC status that was based on basic factors of production. That will be an acid test where the country can fail unless there are fundamental changes in the higher education system. There was a suggestion in the higher education enhancement programme for universities for creation of a super-university to provide leadership in this sector of education. External help could be sought as the internal elements have proven inadequate. This has not happened though there is no shortage of new universities shoring up all the time. Yet we happily employ coaches for all kinds of games incurring huge foreign expenses. The country needs to fix its priorities.

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