Why Bangladesh must rethink its maritime education

With over 700 kilometres of pristine coastline and jurisdiction over a vast and resource-rich Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh stands on the threshold of huge maritime opportunity. This natural asset, coupled with the country’s favourable position along some of the globe’s most critical shipping routes, ought to have made maritime education a cornerstone of its development strategy. But this vast potential remains largely unrealised.

Maritime education is not an esoteric discipline of scholarly inquiry; it is a ship of sovereignty, a shield of economic power, and a stepping stone to regional prominence in the growing blue economy. As author H.G. Wells once proclaimed, “Civilisation is a race between education and catastrophe.” For Bangladesh, winning that race begins with anchoring its destiny on the seas—and educating a generation to guide it ahead.

Bangladesh nurtured this vision for several decades through institutions like the Bangladesh Marine Academy (BMA) and the Marine Fisheries Academy (MFA)—each with specific, non-overlapping mandates. The BMA was to benefit the international merchant navy by producing highly qualified deck and engine officers. The MFA, on the other hand, was set up to grow the fisheries industry of Bangladesh, with a focus on sustainable harvesting of resources, promotion of technology, and conservation of marine biodiversity.

But now, this once harmonious environment is in chaos. What was initially designed as a two-engine approach to economic and environmental growth has deteriorated into an aimless and fragmented setting, marked by institutional duplication, uncontrolled expansion, and policy drift. The consequences are dire: an overproduction of poorly prepared graduates, widespread underemployment, and growing credibility gaps in the world’s maritime community.

A Tale of Two Academies: The Bangladesh Marine Academy, established in 1962 in Chattogram, was envisioned as a maritime giant producing merchant marine officers to operate the national fleet and international shipping behemoths. It was built with vision, anticipating the increasing demand for skilled officers in world trade and logistics.

On the other hand, the Marine Fisheries Academy, established in 1973 with assistance from the then Soviet Union, was dedicated to building expertise in oceanic sustainability, marine biology, fisheries technology, and ship operations specific to Bangladesh’s fisheries industry. It was meant for conservation and maximisation of local resources, not for commercial shipping.

However, policy drift has produced functional convergence. An astonishing 90 per cent of MFA graduates currently seek employment in commercial shipping instead of the fisheries industry. This uncontrolled diversion not only disempowers the MFA’s purpose but also overwhelms the BMA by causing institutional duplication and exaggerating competition for spots on a static number of ocean-going ships.

The Mirage of Expansion: Instead of focusing on excellence, one government after another has opted for expansion in the name of glory. Over the past few years, the government opened four new marine academies at Barisal, Pabna, Sylhet, and Rangpur, each bearing the high-profile BMA brand name. These were politically convenient but strategically foolish.

The consequence has been chilling. According to the Bangladesh Merchant Marine Officers’ Association (BMMOA), around 60 per cent of new graduates are underemployed or out of work. The quality of instruction has declined due to veteran mariners earning $5,000–$8,000/month on board rejecting academic posts with below $500/month.

Such misalignment produces frustration and underemployment and erodes Bangladesh’s international maritime reputation.

The crisis is not merely one of quantity but of quality. Some new academies operate with substandard training ships, outdated simulators, and bare-bones staff lists. The quality of sea-time training, essential to international certification under STCW (Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping), is often lacking or, worse, bogus.

Besides, cadet admissions continue to run unchecked with little connection to market demand. Admission requirements have eased, and academic intensity has decreased, putting the global employability of graduates at risk. With lower training outputs, Singapore, the Philippines, and India can maintain higher placement levels owing to quality-first policies and greater conformity to shipping industry trends.

Learning from Global Models: Bangladesh need not reinvent the wheel.

India operates the Central Institute of Fisheries Nautical and Engineering Training (CIFNET) and the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), which have dissimilar educational purposes and non-functional duplication of function with its maritime academies, operated by the Indian Maritime University.  

The Philippines, the top global maritime labour supply country, maintains high overseas placement rates due to the rigorous imposition of international accreditation standards and the regulation of intake based on actual shipping needs.

The Netherlands and Norway have integrated industry-associated maritime universities with shared R&D facilities, corporate apprenticeships, and teachers hired directly from world fleets.

Bangladesh must move away from populist proliferation to consolidation for a purpose.

Strategic Recommendations: To bring maritime education back as a cornerstone of national progress, Bangladesh must undertake reform rooted in realism, not rhetoric:

Strengthen BMA Chattogram as a National Flagship Institution. Centralise finances and foreign collaborations to bring BMA to global training levels, including IMO accreditation and STCW 2010 certification.

Recover the Original Mandate of the Marine Fisheries Academy. Re-establish MFA as a specialist academy handling fisheries management, marine conservation, and blue economy development. Create R&D clusters in aquatic ecology.

Declare a Moratorium on New Academies. Halt the creation of new academies until a comprehensive audit compares existing institutions’ performance, redundancies, and employability levels.

Revamp Instructor Recruitment. Start an incentive-based recruitment program with at least $1,500/month and internationally compliant training centers to attract quality mariners.

Synchronise Enrollment with Employment Trends. Collaborate with BIMCO and foreign shipowners’ associations to forecast officer demand and adjust cadet enrollment in line with this.

Establish a National Maritime Education Regulatory Authority. This autonomous agency would be responsible for accreditation, curriculum design, employment observation, and ethical recruitment.

Conclusion: Bangladesh’s maritime academies were never intended to be ritualistic shrines for retired naval officers or political constituency monoliths. They were born of a visionary national desire to propel the country to the vanguard of global maritime commerce and oceanic stewardship. They were designed to be engines of excellence, not icons of expediency.

Now, that initial vision has gone overboard. Inter-institutional overlap, quality degradation, and misguided expansion have set the industry off course. But today’s drift doesn’t have to be destiny. It is a challenge that demands a leadership culture to forgo short-term applause for the demands of deep, structural change. What Bangladesh needs now is not bureaucratic convenience, but strategic audacity. Not populism, but purpose. The sea is brimming with promise—economic opportunity, ecological creativity, and geopolitical power. But it makes those gifts only to those willing to chart it with direction and resolve. Bangladesh must align its maritime education with its maritime destiny again, transmuting knowledge into navigational capability.

Ghulam Suhrawardi is the President of the Bangladesh Marine Academy Alumni Association (BMAAA). suhrawardi@southasiajournal.net