The New Nation - Internet Edition

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.