Editorial
Private sector universities
A comprehensive, need-oriented law imperative
THE policy approach successive governments have taken to private sector universities in the country has been marked either by lack of inclusiveness as far as the viewpoints of stake-holders went, or by short-sighted formulation that failed to legislate for the future.
Thus, we see while private universities came into operation under the Private University Act 1992, not even half a decade onwards, the government was to feel the need to amend it in 1998. Down the road, there has been intermittent categorisation of universities in terms of their quality and performance with an attempted blacklisting of the substandard ones which didn't quite work for lack of enforcement. Then, responding to a proposal from the UGC, the last caretaker government promulgated the Private University Ordinance, 2008. The present government deciding not to ratify the ordinance, has let it lapse.
There we stand now face to face with the challenge of updating the law in a way that while meeting the inadequacies of the provisions of the past goes forward to facilitate higher education chiming in with the vision for a modern Bangladesh. In this perspective, we have the news that a new private university act is in the works. The UGC has been tasked by the government to organise an interactive session of stake-holders to ascertain their views on what should go into the proposed law and take these onboard in order to promote and streamline higher education in the private sector. There is little denying that given the limited intake capacity of public universities, private universities by and large are providing alternatives for multitudes of youngsters to be absorbed in them. It is equally true that barring a handful of universities, a dozen or so top ranking ones, most others need to be improved while there are a large many that are patently substandard, mere signboard organisations, some of which even selling certificates. Furthermore, there is a genuine parental concern over high fees charged by the universities and a bend towards commercialisation, an issue that will have to be addressed in tandem with considerations of quality and outreach to the middle class.
The exchange-of-view meet should not be one-off but a continuing process of consultation until such time as sufficient input is available for formulation of a comprehensive policy on private universities.
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