Higher education
Higher education in Bangladesh is fragmented, scattered, and takes place in nearly 1200 institutions called affiliated colleges, many of which are tiny and a trace better than higher secondary schools. They do not have libraries worth the name. Most of them have a faculty strength varying from 100 to 200 and the number of faculty with doctoral qualification is pitiably low or nil in many cases. These institutions of higher learning perform only classroom teaching, preparing students for examinations like tutorial colleges. Unfortunately, the entire higher education in Bangladesh takes place only in the ill-equipped, understaffed, affiliated colleges as can be seen from the fact that 89 per cent of undergraduate students, 66 per cent of post-graduate students, and 82 per cent of faculty are in the affiliated colleges. We have the peculiar situation of substantial post-graduate education in colleges that have no research whatsoever. Only nine per cent of research scholars are in the affiliated colleges. Can anyone knowledgeable in higher education understand, much less accept, post-graduate education leading to MSc, MA, MPhil, and even PhD degrees in institutions that have no sanction for professorial positions, no research scholars, and no semblance of any research, much less basic research? But this academic wonder is happening in Bangladesh growing strong, multiplying and unchecked. Consequently, it is not only our undergraduate education but also a substantial part of our post-graduate education that is poor in quality. We may adopt the following steps to augment the number of university-level institutions. The government must set up, in a planned way, more colleges not universities. There must be encouragement to establish private universities with adequate safeguards to ensure quality and healthy management. Many deserving colleges must be granted university status; many good colleges must be given autonomy. In the case of colleges that do not qualify to become deemed universities or autonomous colleges by 2021, a ten-year scheme must be prepared to transform them into junior colleges offering job-oriented diploma programmes. The affiliating system must cease to exist after 2021. The government must, in all seriousness, draw up a plan and programme of action, allot the necessary funds under the mission "Reconstruction of Higher Education," and implement it in two successive five-year plans.
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