Higher education tailored to economic development

According to UNESCO, “Higher education includes all types of studies, training, or training for research at the post-secondary level, provided by universities or other educational establishments that are approved as institutions of higher education by the competent state authorities”. In Bangladesh higher education begins after 12 years of successful schooling. This definition of higher education is used in this article.  The author argues that without a critical minimum mass of human resources empowered with higher education and training, no nation can achieve economic development. Particularly, higher education in science and technology is more important. By implication, higher education needs to be given higher priority than it has received in the past in national development plan. The author also argues that higher education should be promoted and provided in such a way as to achieve the required level of economic development. To provide higher education in a planned way, the country needs to prepare national manpower plans. Therefore, Bangladesh Five Year Plans should contain a separate chapter on national manpower planning matching various targets of economic development. For rapid economic development, higher education should get higher priority than it has received in the past.  
Importance of Higher Education
Higher education, particularly in science and technology, is the most important prerequisite of economic development. In fact, it is the prerequisite of all other developments, namely, political, social, cultural, etc. It is to be noted that economic development includes industrial, agricultural, technological and all service sectors development. The graduates produced by both public and private universities and colleges under National University (assuming that they get high quality and relevant education and training) work as powerful engines of economic development.  The graduates of world class universities can provide the most important ingredients of development, namely, required knowledge, skills, leadership, innovation and changes. The higher the quality of education, the better is the performance of the graduates at job situation. The universities and other institutions of higher learning are established to impart top quality education and produce top quality graduates who stand out as professional leaders in their respective fields. However, it is not the quality of graduates alone that is necessary for economic growth and development; the quantity is equally important. The number of employable graduates produced by the universities must be large enough to meet the requirements of all the sub-sectors that contribute to overall economic development.  The universities or the institutions of higher learning are required to produce highly skilled manpower equipped with education and training in all relevant disciplines. Economic development happens with inputs or services of scientists including agricultural and medical scientists, engineers, IT experts, computer engineers, economists, business executives, management experts, accountants, biotechnologists, teachers/ professors, etc. Economic development is synonymous with knowledge-economy. Here lies the importance of higher education.
 

Source: guardian

Need for Manpower Planning
Bangladesh does not have a higher education system that supplies manpower in a planned way. What we have is a supply-driven pool of human resources. The supply is a function of the production capacity of the producers, namely, universities 

and colleges. Often supply (university graduates) does not match the demand for graduates with qualifications the employers look for.  This happens due to lack of manpower planning.
Our National Five Year Plans (FYP) indicate the vision, mission, goals and targets of primarily economic, social and cultural development. Bangladesh does not have a separate manpower plan. It is essential that Five-Year Plan includes a separate chapter on a manpower plan. This plan needs to indicate the categories and number of skilled manpower necessary to implement the FYP. Manpower planning exercise will indicate, for example, how many computer engineers, IT experts /technicians and how many  Universities of Science and Technology and colleges will be required to produce the required number of  skilled human resources to implement a sustainable Digital Bangladesh program. Similarly, the export potential of shipbuilding industry of Bangladesh is quite promising. The export of ships built in Bangladesh is growing rapidly.  The government can alert the universities of Engineering and Technology to prepare themselves to produce an increasing number of shipbuilding engineers and naval architects. Similar exercise may be carried out to meet the demand for engineers in the field of power generation, transmission and distribution; and engineers of different specializations keeping in view the construction of large bridges like Padma bridge, and the network of flyovers in major cities. Furthermore, to make our efforts successful to establish a sustainable food security program, we need to strengthen the agricultural universities and research institutes so that they can increase the supply of agricultural research scientists. The manpower plan under reference should include projection of the categories and number of the scientists that will be required in future. Similarly, for health sector, the demand for additional medical doctors of required specializations should be estimated. These are only few examples. There are many more types of manpower required for economic development for which estimates must be made.  Then the number of institutions of higher learning (general, sciences, medical, agricultural, engineering and technical) with their capacities to produce graduates with relevant education will have to be estimated. These institutions / universities will supply the required types and number of graduates keeping in view the national manpower; otherwise, lopsided development of universities will be unavoidable. Absence of such a manpower planning tends to lead to a mismatch between supply and demand of human resources which may result in slowing down economic progress.  

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Revisiting the Education System is Necessary
In Bangladesh there are 38 public universities and 78 private universities. These universities supply skilled manpower to man all economic activities. Until recently, public universities were the sole suppliers of highly skilled manpower. Situation has changed with the emergence of private universities. Graduates of some reputable private universities compete with those of the good public universities. But mismatch between the demand and supply continues. This happens because there is no coordination between national Planning Commission, UGC and universities. This causes conspicuous lopsidedness in the development of higher education in Bangladesh.  Besides, in most cases quality of education is poor. There is no dearth of graduates, but most of them are not suitable for the positions the employers can offer.
The above implies that the institutions of higher learning must impart relevant and high quality education and training matching the national manpower plan.
It is to be noted that higher education is one of the three major components of the total education system, the other two being primary and secondary. These three are interdependent.  One cannot discuss the quality of higher education without reference to that of the primary and secondary education because both secondary and primary education form the foundation of higher education.  On the other hand, the quality of education imparted at primary and secondary schools depends on the quality of education and training the teachers of primary and secondary schools receive at the tertiary level. If these teachers are not well educated and trained, most of the children (students of the primary schools) do not attain the target level literacy. Consequently, the foundation of their basic education continues to be weak. There are some other weaknesses that reduce quality at primary level education.  Often teachers do not complete the syllabi because many schools do not have required number of class rooms or seating places, sometimes students do not have text books, schools do not have required teaching aids, occasionally teachers remain absent and some students do not attend the classes regularly. As a result,

although the boys and girls pass the school tests and spend five years in the schools, many of them are found not prepared to study at the secondary schools. Quality of their education remains poor. When they are promoted to the secondary level, they continue to carry the burden of inadequacies and weak foundation.  As in the primary schools, many of the secondary schools do not have well qualified teachers. On the top of it, their number is less than required. The weaker students who come from the primary schools continue to remain weaker at the secondary level as well. Excepting a smaller percentage, the weaker students continue up to the college and university level and get their degrees. To be sure, one must note that all schools, colleges and universities (public and private) do not provide low quality education. There are very good schools, colleges and universities in Bangladesh. When graduates of these institutions of higher learning go to the employment market, meritocracy prevails. The brilliant and meritorious graduates get attractive jobs quickly at high salaries. Less brilliant and meritorious graduates also get jobs; however, they take time and of course get low paid jobs. Some graduates opt for entrepreneurship. But these graduates are not necessarily less brilliant or graduates of poor colleges or universities. However, only brilliant and meritorious graduates can expedite the process of economic development. This means, economic development can hardly be achieved without high quality higher education. As the country progresses economically, the demand for higher education increases also. For this, higher priority must be given to higher education than it has received in the past. Given the public fund constraints, the government should provide various incentives to motivate entrepreneurs to establish better quality private universities.    
 

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Private Universities and Quality Improvement
Given the above situation, an important question is: how to improve the quality of higher education? I chose to discuss the quality assurance questions with reference to private universities only, although quality of education imparted by the public universities and the colleges under National University needs to be improved.
In Bangladesh, higher education in various forms is imparted by the degree colleges, university colleges, universities both public and private, and also the government approved institutions of technical education and or training that admit students who have completed 12 years of formal schooling. Here universities are mainly focused. A well established university is a comprehensive research university that “integrates three major functions, within a single institutional framework: teaching-learning, research and public service”. At the initial stage, a university is likely to be exclusively a teaching-learning institution. With acquiring increasing effectiveness in teaching, a university tends to add research activities as its second major functions. The advancement of knowledge through research is an essential function of all systems of higher education.
Of the 78 private universities, about 60 universities do not provide internationally acceptable quality education. To meet the expectations of the students and also for the benefit of the country, these universities are morally, if not legally, bound to enhance the quality of education they impart. To provide high quality education, a university must meet the following conditions:
1. To design and offer academic degree programs that are internationally acceptable and relevant to the Bangladeshi economy and society. After the students successfully finish a program, they should be employable both in Bangladesh and abroad. Those universities that want to be internationally reputable must equip their graduates with the ability to compete in the international job markets. This calls for substantial enhancement of quality.   
2. To hire high profile professors and scholars who are sufficiently qualified to undertake research, and teach the courses included in the degree programs.  In addition to internationally reputable professors, adequate number of associate professors, assistant professors and lecturers should be recruited. Standard teacher- student ratio needs to be maintained.
3. To admit highly promising young minds (brilliant students) who have demonstrated academic achievements and leadership quality and will be able to complete the degree programs successfully.
4. To ensure availability of necessary infrastructural facilities like well designed campus buildings,  class rooms well-equipped with computer terminals and power point facilities, completely digitized libraries, computer centers, laboratories for relevant disciplines,  auditoriums, cafeteria, recreation centers for students and faculties, playground, etc. that create academic atmosphere.   
5. Research and publications should be made compulsory for all teachers. All teachers should have a computer terminal and a designated computer equipped with latest internet facility and software necessary to do advanced research.  
6. All teachers should be provided with a Faculty Manual that states what the teachers are required to do and what they cannot do. Deans and Chairmen of the departments should form a team to monitor the performances of the teachers. Non-compliant teachers should be punished and the compliant teachers rewarded.
7. Institutionalized best management practices and an over arching good governance system must be in place. This is necessary to make happen all the things listed at # 1 through # 6 above.   
Conclusion
The level of education is important, but its quality is more important. Without a critical minimum mass of human resources empowered with relevant education and training no nation can achieve economic development. Higher education and national development are interdependent. To accelerate the pace of development a country must acquire ability to impart high quality higher education and to acquire the ability to impart quality higher education a country must develop economically to generate necessary resources. In fact, education system must be integrated with development process. Higher education should be promoted and provided in such a way as to achieve the required level of economic development. To provide higher education in a planned way, the country needs to prepare national manpower plans. Therefore, Bangladesh's Five Year Plans should contain a separate chapter on national manpower planning matching various targets of economic development.  Higher education needs to be given higher priority than it has received in the past in national development plan.
Enrolment in the private universities is much higher than that of the public universities.
If quality of education imparted by all the private universities is improved at the desired level, their graduates will be able to help accelerate economic development of Bangladesh. Various incentives should be provided to increase private investment in higher education. Both public and private universities and other institutions of higher learning will operate simultaneously to produce skilled graduates to promote economic development.

The writer is Professor Emeritus, BRAC University, and former Vice Chancellor, North South University, Dhaka.