DU and seven colleges part ways: What next? 

The seven colleges earlier affiliated with the University of Dhaka rather thoughtlessly have got what they wanted---cancellation of affiliation. Dhaka University (DU) is unlikely to be unhappy with the parting of ways. In fact, it was made to swallow a bitter pill with no prospect of adding anything to its credit. But why did the students of the seven colleges want to sever their ties with DU? Right from the beginning it was a mismatch that hardly stood any chance of salvaging. The University of Dhaka is an autonomous institution while the seven colleges are all government undertakings. Schools and colleges in this country almost without exception vie for elevating themselves to the status of government institutions, but universities will be the last such facilities to surrender their autonomy to the government.

Colleges differ from universities broadly on two basic counts that differentiate their separate statuses. Colleges offer undergraduate studies as well as graduation courses with the later addition of degree honours and master courses in some subjects. The undergraduate students are prepared to compete for higher education in universities and medical colleges. The brightest of the undergraduates opt for the universities and medical colleges with a few proceeding to pursue education abroad. The next crucial difference is in the teaching staff. Teachers at government colleges are appointed from the education cadre of the Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) while the universities reserve the right to recruit their teachers. University teachers usually with better and higher academic qualifications are considered superior to their peers at the college level.

Both moves to introduce honours and master courses at colleges and the affiliation of the seven government colleges with DU was like putting the cart before the horse. There was no groundwork and manning the faculties with qualified teachers apart from the existing sets of teaching staff to offer honours and master courses. Before the establishment of the Barishal University, a reputed government college in that town with enviable distinctions under the Calcutta University, started offering honours courses in English. Shortage of qualified teachers and limited classes held never allowed even a cursory coverage of the syllabus. Then how did they pass?

In this country there are recipes for tasks much as they may look impossible. Students travelled to Dhaka where there were special coaching centres for students from that college. Teachers from different universities used to supply notes on selected questions. Armed with such suggestions and preparation of answers to questions tailor-made two or three months before examinations, they somehow crossed the hurdle. Students who could not take advantage of this short-cut solution either for financial or other reasons were destined to fail.

The quality of teaching at universities and colleges in general still vary widely. Even the academic standard of the National University is suspect. The university is not to blame for this but it is the systemic fault line that is to blame. The NU serves as an education board that serves at the secondary and higher secondary levels. The number of colleges under it is 2,257 of which 555 are government colleges and 881 of those offer honours courses. This is a gargantuan job and no authority can do enough justice for its supervising role.

No wonder, reputed colleges in the city had high hopes initially for enhancing their prestige by the affiliation. But once the students encountered various problems in the absence of their institutions' integration with the country's premier university, they felt dejected and alienated. They consider their position better than the run-of-the-mill colleges under the NU but the cold shoulder given to them put them in a no-man's land. This explains their desperation for a separate university.

Now the education adviser has rightly observed that establishing a university overnight is impossible. The modalities have to be decided as the process is quite complex. In this context, the British formats Bangladesh follows may offer a solution to the problem. What stands here in the way is the absence of clear guidelines they follow for their different categories of collegiate system. Broadly the colleges are of two categories ---one comprising federal universities such as the University of London and the other traditional collegiate pattern under the Oxford University and the Cambridge University. The colleges under the University of London are teaching institutions joined in a federation. They are all considered 'recognised bodies' that have the right to confer University of London degrees and also in many instances their own degrees.

Then the corporate status and academic status decide their legal status. But the colleges under the Oxbridge (Oxford and Cambridge combined) system are residential, which may have academic responsibilities or not. Teachers of the universities can opt for colleges to offer lessons. In other words, uniformity of teaching standard is maintained. While college life and membership in residential accommodations are common under the Oxbridge system, no colleges other than the central university have the authority to award degrees. A college is dedicated to a specific subject matter. Students either have to apply directly to the college of the subject of choice or in case of undergraduate programmes through a centralised system, allowing them to file candidature for several colleges at once. This is called the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). The seven colleges here have not attained such a collegiate status and yet those were placed under DU.

Interestingly, colleges in UK enjoy their autonomy including financial and some of them are in better financial health than their universities. For example, about two-thirds of the 4.3 billion pound endowment of the Cambridge University is in the hands of the colleges, with only one-third of the fund belonging to the central university. The crux of the problem lies here. Colleges and universities in Bangladesh have failed to attain the corporate status and so depend on government funds.

Under the circumstances, following the Oxbridge system is beyond imagination. The collegiate model with some readjustment may be considered. Experts in the field from home and abroad have to be engaged to develop such a system of tertiary education. A new university for the seven colleges may open the floodgate to more such candidates, particularly the old and reputed colleges all across the country.

nilratanhalder2000@yahoo.com