University education in a developing country

One thing must be clear to our educational authorities that since we have a large population, student enrolment is going to be naturally larger and larger every year. Some people suggest for selective higher education. To me it is no solution, rather it is a selfish motive to prevent others from enjoying the benefits that is a monopoly of the lucky few. There cannot be any justification for this sort of protectionism. Rather, we must learn how to manage large universities with emphasis on technical and job oriented subjects because our universities are going to be large not by choice but by necessity.

People of a poor country like Bangladesh naturally expect that our universities should play a greater and meaningful role in the development of the country. The question of educational efficiency is vitally important here because the universities are financed by public funds which are provided by the people. In recent years there has been criticism that the universities in Bangladesh have failed in their role of producing leaders for the country who are expected to make meaningful contributions in all spheres of development.

It is generally admitted that the Dhaka University which was established in 1921 has changed little in its character of curriculum, teaching and management although the size of the student body has increased by several thousands. Inflexibility and rigidity in terms of curricular changes and educational management hinders the learners from getting an education which is adequately suited to the needs of the 21st century.

The universities in our neighbouring countries are playing a greater role in nation-building activities. Some of them have been termed as "people's university" where any interested learner irrespective of age or break of studies take up courses of his choice. It is pity that in our universities even break of study is used against a prospective student. Poverty is a major reason for break of study for many students, but it should not stand in his way of getting higher education if he is otherwise qualified.

Cost effectiveness is a factor which is commonly evaded in our country in terms of all types of investments. But this sort of laissez-faire approach results in colossal wastages which are clearly evident in investments of all types. Education is no exception. In order to gear up higher education and getting optimum return from the investment made in it, the question of efficiency should be taken up seriously. There are two types of efficiencies -- the internal efficiency and the external efficiency. By internal efficiency we mean the suitability of the curricula, the quality of teaching and effectiveness of the educational management, while external efficiency indicates the extent of utilisation and return from the product (graduates) that is turned out by the university. Normally, in order to prepare a need-based curriculum, a survey of the needs of the society and the country is made. But in our case mostly it is copied from the curriculum of the foreign universities which have little relevance to our situation for obvious reasons. This is very true in the case of science curriculum in our universities. As a result, we have not been able to produce scientists capable of making breakthroughs and inventions that could lead to rapid progress both social and economic.

The quality of teaching has been generally poor. Perhaps the teacher is not responsible in all cases, but lack of physical facilities, such as adequate seating arrangement, sufficient number of classrooms, microphone systems where applicable, visual aids, etc is also responsible. Due to the abnormal rise in the number of university students in recent years there has been increased pressure on whatever meagre facilities are available at the moment.

In terms of external efficiency, our universities have miserably failed. We have been producing graduates by thousands who have no jobs. Unemployment in higher education has become acute in recent years. The lopsided planning in offering courses and admission has produced a serious imbalance which has resulted in shortage of manpower in one sector and an oversupply of educated manpower in another sector.

One thing must be clear to our educational authorities that since we have a large population, student enrolment is going to be naturally larger and larger every year. Some people suggest for selective higher education. To me it is no solution, rather it is a selfish motive to prevent others from enjoying the benefits that is a monopoly of the lucky few. There cannot be any justification for this sort of protectionism. Rather, we must learn how to manage large universities with emphasis on technical and job oriented subjects because our universities are going to be large not by choice but by necessity.

In this connection, however, the experience of the United States of America may to some extent be useful. In the USA, there are universities with more than 50,000 students. Those universities are being managed quite smoothly and successfully. For arrangements of curriculum the American system may also be adopted where courses in a department are numbered -- lower numbers for under-graduate courses and higher numbers for the post-graduate course. Credit system is used there by assigning certain credits to each course and a student has to complete a fixed number of credits for his major as well as minor area of study. In the matter of grading system letter grade should be simpler than the present percentage system. A 4-point scale may be used as in other countries for ease of calculation.

In recent times an alarming trend has emerged in the field of higher education. It is the proliferation of private universities. By now, nearly 40 private universities have been permitted to work in the country. More than 90 per cent of these are based in Dhaka and most of them offer only three subjects, namely, BBA, MBA and Computer Science and they are housed in a hired building without adequate rooms and teaching facilities not to speak of space for games and sports. They do not have full-time faculty but they hire teachers of public universities on part-time basis. It is obvious that the quality of education offered in these universities is very poor and not worthy to be called higher education. For the interest of the country, the government should stop giving permission to open any more private university and initiate strong monitoring and control system for the existing private universities for ensuring quality higher education.

Dr M Ashraf Ali is Professor and Director, IER, Dhaka University.