Editorial
Filling in academic positions at public universities
Non-returning academics must answer for their conduct
OVER the past many years, it has become something of a bad rule for many university teachers to go abroad for higher studies and then choose to stay back rather than return to their academic institutions. What emerges here is the spectacle of academics committing not only an act that is less than moral but also plainly beyond the bounds of rules and regulations. When these teachers go abroad, they do so on behalf of the universities with which they are affiliated full time. In a number of instances, the public universities expend a lot of resources, in terms of finance and time, in sending teachers for higher studies at foreign universities. The normal expectation is that once their stay at those universities is over under the terms of their residence and study, they will return home. Unfortunately, not many of them do. A few years ago, under pressure from such authorities as Dhaka University to return home or compensate the universities for their unauthorized stay abroad, some teachers sent in their resignations.
The teachers who quietly decide not to return home and instead find themselves jobs at different educational institutions abroad are doing not only their mother institutions a disfavour but also creating a bad impression among their students by not resuming classes for them back home. It is only natural that their departments will wait, once they finish their courses abroad, to come home and have new class schedules drawn up for their pupils. At the same time, it is their students who look forward to being taught by teachers about to return after quality education abroad. In both situations, it is often the teachers who cause disappointment by staying away. One would not be altogether wrong in suggesting they are absconding.
The prime minister has instructed the university authorities to take steps to fill the vacant teaching positions at the public universities. That is to be appreciated, but then comes the rather cumbersome rules regarding dismissing teachers if they go AWOL or absent without leave. Given the realities of the situation, one could rethink the rules with a view to easing the process of replacements. Meanwhile, the suggestion about ad hoc appointments of university teachers is one that could be seriously mulled over. But it is also necessary that action be taken against the offending non-returning teachers. The loopholes which currently exist about teachers going abroad and staying back need plugging. The sooner it is done the better.
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