The New Nation - Internet Edition

Hopes for the New Year

IT is the universal tradition to greet the New Year. Bangladeshis have welcomed the new year, 2009, with fervour. They have reasons to be specially optimistic in the new year because they have passed a major hurdle in the sense of successfully holding the long awaited national elections. With the elections over the people now await a smooth power transition and a new government to discharge its responsibilities amid relative political stability. This factor, plus the robust macro economic conditions which the caretaker government inherited and is leaving for their successors, would help the newcomers to start off without facing major economic challenges.

Thus, the New Year should begin peacefully with good tidings in the political and economic fronts. However, the above would depend entirely on what the new elected government does to free itself from old ruling styles to understand the depth of people's expectations and respond to the same. The Awami League leaders must realise that they have to be exceptionally work-oriented to materialise their election pledges made to the people. The same would essentially involve doing everything possible to maintain political stability which is indispensable for good economic performance. To that end the next government should make and sustain gestures towards the opposition to be a part of governmental efforts.

In the economic sphere, the new government must get its acts together from the first month of governance to steer the economy amid the worldwide economic downturn with very able hands striking a good balance between the macro and micro needs. The meeting of the twin objectives reasonably well by the winners of the election, will mean that Bangladesh would stand a good chance to experience a happy and productive year.

Marrying off adult children

MARRIAGE at early age is no more in practice anywhere across the world in general mainly because of complications of modern and competitive life though child marriage was once in vogue everywhere globally. But nowadays in many countries and societies, getting married for both men and women not at proper age has become worrisome for many parents irrespective of territory, caste and creed. Finding a partner for marriage late in life has become an acute problem to parents as reported from Japan.

As a growing number of Japanese remain single into their 40s, parents eager to marry off their children so they can retire in peace are giving new life to the old tradition of matchmaking. More than two hundred parents gathered recently in the ballroom of a hotel in the Japanese capital, many wearing reading glasses as they browsed a list of potential partners for their children. Arranged marriages have fallen out of favour in Japan in recent decades as women take stronger roles in society and choose their own partners - or choose to stay single - without parental interference.

Many young people have focussed on building their careers rather than families, contributing to Japan's rapidly falling birthrate. Most of the parents are of the view that their children would first try to find spouses on their own though some others hold the view that age is a major factor for parents who want grandchildren. In Japan, 47 per cent of men and 32 per cent of women in their early 30s were unmarried in 2005. Among women, the figure has more than doubled since 1990.

Improving efficiency of the private universities

Prof. Dr. M. Alimullah Miyan

Private universities have made significant contributions in terms of expanding the base of higher education in the country on the face of growing demand. In quantitative terms, the growth in enrollment size has been phenomenal being around 1,50,000 as of 2008. More significant is the rising trend as observed from the data compiled by the University Grants Commission of Bangladesh as in the table below.

Public universities, excluding the National University and Bangladesh Open University, have a total intake of 10.9% of all students in higher education, while the private universities have approximately 6% of the students. This is a phenomenal growth within a short span of time. The rate of increase is sustained and will increase further as the recently established private universities go through their maturity cycle.

More private universities are likely to be established in the coming years, and certainly there is a desire on the part of the community to establish such institutions as can be seen from the number of applications pending approval. Even though there may be some reduction in the existing number through consolidation and other processes, it can be reasonably assumed that existing private universities will enroll more students in the coming years through opening new disciplines, expansion in existing disciplines, branching and other growth modes.

With the rising trend, growth and expansion, it is reasonable to assume that the private universities will equal the contribution of public universities in enrollment in the coming decade and thereafter attract proportionately more students. This increasing enrollment is a reflection of the confidence of the community in the quality of education in private universities. Society is the largest stakeholder in education for social mobility.

As indicated earlier, society expects higher educational institutions to perform several functions including preparation of skilled manpower, development and transfer of technology and equitable access. Relevance (external efficiency) is the criterion by which the outputs of the system are compared in general terms with needs and expectation.

On the criteria of relevance, the private universities performed remarkably well. They have concentrated on providing market relevant and demand based education covering areas like business education, computer science, engineering, medicine etc. These universities have demonstrated more tuning to labor market demands relative to public universities.

Besides the issue of reflecting market demand regarding the areas of study, the more important question of relevance relates to the creation of knowledge, skills and attitude necessary for productive work in the economy. The employment record of private university graduates is good and from the quality of entry level job offers received by early generation of graduates, it can be concluded that the quality of graduates is reasonably high.

In other words, the private universities are mostly able to produce graduates who can meet skill requirements of the employers. The private universities are not adding to the large pool of educated unemployed people in the society; rather they are producing skilled manpower to meet market demand and to a limited extent contributing to job creation through entrepreneurial efforts of their graduates. The economic and social spin-off from such contributions is manifold and commendable. Such contribution is hardly possible without being market based.

Value for money : The increasing enrollment is a reflection that the students are getting the value for money through knowledge acquisition, skill development as well as grooming for higher studies, employment or entrepreneurship.

Knowledge acquisition : The rate of acceptance of private university students in higher degree granting institutions of the developed countries is a reflection of the rigor of knowledge training.

A significant number of graduates of private universities have appeared in standard tests for admission into graduate study programs of very competitive universities of North America and Europe and got admitted into Masters and Doctoral programs. A good number has successfully completed study and is even reentering faculty positions in private universities in the country.

Even at the level of professions like medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, law etc, the graduates of private universities are getting accepted by professional bodies at home and abroad as well as in higher educational institutions.

These are reflections of quality in imparting knowledge and developing skills.

Academic discipline : There is session jam in public universities. This is created by extended closure of public universities due to strikes and other unexpected causes.

This means, on average, it takes 2 to 3 years more than the planned time for completing a degree. This situation is pervasive in most public institutions with some variation across institutions and in different years.

As opposed to this, almost all the private universities have the enviable record of graduating students on schedule as per academic calendar. It may be mentioned here that the private universities in Bangladesh have mostly adopted the North American model of higher education involving four years for undergraduate degree and two years for Master's and semesters as academic terms. Concurrent to this, most of them produce an academic calendar of activities and ensure its effective implementation. The result is valuable cost and time saving on the part of students and parents, early job entry and competitive edge over fellow students of the same age in public universities.

This enforcement of academic calendar has contributed to economic and social progress as well as satisfaction of students and parents. This model of academic discipline is a welcome addition to efficiency of academic activities and is increasingly gaining popularity among academic institutions in the country.

In a developing country like Bangladesh such precision is a significant quality dimension.

Governance and administrative effectiveness: It may be mentioned that the public universities have appropriate structural arrangement in place for good governance and administrative efficiency but they are unable to serve their purpose for many reasons including politicization, inappropriate manning, and lack of professionalism. As opposed to this, private universities, mostly established by philanthropists, have been to a great extent, been able to evolve good governance and administrative effectiveness despite many environmental constraints.

The founders of these universities have been working earnestly to put in place policies that will ensure good governance and, consequent success, with few exceptions. Similarly, these universities are reasonably well administered with a client focus, and a reasonable level of accountability has been established for administrators, faculty and other staff members. There is no report of politicization in private university campuses and most institutions have record of uninterrupted operation. The oversight function by the founders and professionalism of administrators and faculty have contributed to good governance and administrative efficiency in the private universities. This aspect will be further strengthened as the universities gain experience.

Governance and administration is an important parameter for quality of academic and administrative work in a HEI and in this dimension private universities have done well with statistically insignificant exceptions.

Updating curriculum : Quality higher education to create skilled global manpower must reflect ever-changing knowledge and skill requirements to be relevant as well as competitive.

Exchange of experience and expertise between universities in the developed and developing countries can enhance relevance and adaptation of global perspectives in educational programs.

Most private universities have established linkages with universities abroad, partly to ensure that credits are transferable and accepted for further education, and partly to transfer academic knowledge and skills through various mechanisms. A good number have also joined the international network of academic bodies both for recognition and cross fertilization of programs and ideas.

These linkages promote curriculum review on regular basis to ensure compatibility as well as flow of information to the academic on the content changes on a real time basis. The private universities are flexibly responding to changing skill requirements of the market place in existing programs through frequent curriculum reviews, contacts with developed country academia and introducing new content elements as and when necessary. Thus the private universities are leading in program innovation and curriculum modification in line with the ever-changing job market at local and global levels. This in turn is strengthening the higher education base in Bangladesh. Updating curriculum on periodic basis is an important parameter of ensuring quality in educational process.

Promotion of ICT : Reducing digital divide between developed and developing countries calls for increased promotion of ICT education and training in developing countries. Bangladesh is no exception to this situation. Private universities are making commendable contributions in development of ICT in Bangladesh. This is reflected in the result of a countrywide survey conducted by the ICT in Higher Education Expert Group in July-August, 2005 to assess the condition of higher education institutions offering ICT degrees throughout the country. The survey shows that private universities have the largest proportion of students enrolled in ICT degree programs (around 68%). The survey also found that the private universities offering ICT programs are reasonably well equipped and have a teacher student ratio of 1:13 as compared to 1:18 for public universities.

Forgive and forget?

Jonathan Freedland

It is the night before Christmas and the season of goodwill. The mood is forgiving. Our faces warm with mulled wine, our tummies full, we're meant to slump in the armchair, look back on the year just gone and count our blessings - woozily agreeing to put our troubles behind us.

As in families, so in the realm of public and international affairs. And this December that feels especially true. The "war on terror" that dominated much of the decade seems to be heading towards a kind of conclusion. George Bush will leave office in a matter of weeks and British troops will leave Iraq a few months later.

The first, defining phase of the conflict that began on 9/11 - the war of Bush, Tony Blair and Osama bin Laden - is about to slip from the present to the past tense. Bush and Blair will be gone, with only Bin Laden still in post. The urge to move on is palpable.

You can sense it in the valedictory interviews Bush and Dick Cheney are conducting on their way out. They're looking to the verdict of history now, Cheney telling the Washington Times last week: "I myself am personally persuaded that this president and this administration will look very good 20 or 30 years down the road." The once raging arguments of the current era are about to fade, the lead US protagonists heading off to their respective ranches in the west, the rights and wrongs of their decisions in office to be weighed not in the hot arena of politics, but in the cool seminar rooms of the academy.

Not so fast.

Yes, the new year would get off to a more soothing start if we could all agree to draw a line and move on. But it would be wrong. First, because we cannot hope to avoid repeating the errors of the last eight years unless they are subject to a full accounting. Second, because a crucial principle, one that goes to the very heart of the American creed, is at stake. And third, because this is not solely about the judgment of history. It may be about the judgment of the courts - specifically those charged with punishing war crimes.

Less than a fortnight ago, in the news graveyard of a Friday afternoon, the armed services committee of the US Senate released a bipartisan report into the American use of torture against those held in the war on terror. It dismissed entirely the notion that the horrors of Abu Ghraib could be put down to "a few bad apples". Instead it laid bare, in forensic detail, the trail of memos and instructions that led directly to the then defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld.

It shows how the most senior figures in the Bush administration discussed, and sought legal fig leaves for, practices that plainly amounted to torture. They were techniques devised in a training programme known as Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape or SERE, that aimed to teach elite American soldiers how to endure torture should they fall into the hands of pitiless enemies.

The SERE techniques were partly modelled on the brutal methods used by the Chinese against US prisoners during the Korean war.

Yet Rumsfeld ruled that these same techniques should be "reverse engineered", so that Americans would learn not how to endure them - but how to inflict them. Which they then did, ?at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and beyond.

The Senate report cites the memorandums requesting permission to use "stress positions, exploitation of detainee fears (such as fear of dogs), removal of clothing, hooding, deprivation of light and sound, and the so-called wet towel treatment or the waterboard". We read of Mohamed al Kahtani - against whom all charges were dropped earlier this year - who was "deprived of adequate sleep for weeks on end, stripped naked, subjected to loud music, and made to wear a leash and perform dog tricks". Approval for this kind of torture, hidden under the euphemism of "enhanced interrogation", was sought from and granted at the highest level.

And that doesn't mean Rumsfeld. The report's first conclusion is that, on "7 February 2002, President George W Bush made a written determination that Common Article 3 of the Geneva conventions, which would have afforded minimum standards for humane treatment, did not apply to Al Qaeda or Taleban detainees". The result, it says, is that Bush "opened the door" to the use of a raft of techniques that the US had once branded barbaric and beyond the realm of human decency.

For this Bush should surely be held to account. And yet there is no sign that he will, and precious little agitation that he should.

A still smiling Cheney denies the Bush administration did anything wrong. Note this breathtaking exchange with Fox News at the weekend. He was asked: "If the president during war decides to do something to protect the country, is it legal?" Cheney's answer: "General proposition, I'd say yes."

It takes a few seconds for the full horror of that remark to sink in. And then you remember where you last heard something like it. It was the now immortalised interview between David Frost and Richard Nixon.

The disgraced ex-president was asked whether there were certain situations where the president can do something illegal, if he deems it in the national interest. Nixon's reply: "Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal."

It is no coincidence that Cheney began his career in the Nixon White House. He has the same Nixonian disregard for the US constitution, the same belief that executive power is absolute and unlimited - that those who wield it are above the law, domestic and international. It is the logic of dictatorship.

But Nixon was forced from office, his vision of an unrestrained presidency rejected. If Bush and Cheney are allowed to retire quietly, America will have failed to reassert that bedrock principle of the republic: the rule of law.

This is why there must be a reckoning. Bush will do all he can to avoid it: and it is wholly possible that one of his last acts as president will be to cover himself, his vice-president and all his henchmen with a blanket pardon.

Even if that does not happen, Barack Obama is unlikely to want to spend precious capital pursuing his predecessor for war crimes.

But other prosecutors elsewhere in the world should weigh their responsibilities. In the end, it was a lone Spanish magistrate, not a Chilean court, who ensured the arrest of Augusto Pinochet. A pleasing, if uncharitable, thought this Christmas, is that Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush will hesitate before making plans to travel abroad in 2009. Or indeed at any time - ever again.