ROLE OF PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES FOR DEVELOPMENT

OF BUSINESS EDUCATION IN BANGLADESH

Asif Mahmud

082-11-249

Section: A, Batch: 20

A Common Scenario

At first, lets take for an example of those who have passed SSC and HSC examination with

satisfactory grades but some how have failed to enroll themselves into a government

university. What will they do? Some of them will become frustrated with their life. They will

lose hope about their unforeseeable future. There are two paths in front of them. One is to

admit himself or herself into a college under national university and the other one is to admit

himself or herself into a private university for higher education.

Prologue

Bangladesh is a country full of talent in different fields such as Dr. Mohammad Yunus, Dr.

Maqsudul Alam etc. It only requires a good nursing. There are about 75 academic bodies out

of a total of about 105 institutions which represent the conventional Higher Education

Institutions (HEI) in Bangladesh. Segmented by management and financial structure, these

include 34 public universities, 56 private universities, 2 international universities, 31

specialized collages, and 2 special universities. There are about 1800 colleges organized

under the umbrella of National University.

What is Education

Education in the largest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind,

character or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense, education is the process

by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from

one generation to another. Teachers in educational institutions direct the education of

students and might draw on many subjects, including reading, writing, mathematics, science

and history. This process is sometimes called schooling when referring to the education of

teaching only a certain subject, usually as professors at institutions of higher learning.

Business Education

Business education involves teaching students the fundamentals, theories, and processes of

business. Education in this field occurs at several levels, including secondary education and

higher education or university education, with the greatest activity in the latter. Business

education typically prepares students for an occupation in business or a business-related field,

or a teaching career in academia. At the university level, students have the opportunity to take

general business courses, or to seek a specific degree in business studies. Courses offered

vary by school, but typically include basic selections such as Accounting, Marketing,

Finance, and Operations Management. Specific curricula and degree-granting procedures

differ somewhat by region. At the graduate school level, students can seek a variety of

specific degrees, most often an MBA. Students pursuing postgraduate degrees usually have

some prior business experience.

Number of Seats vs. Number of Students

Many students with good results can not get higher education because seat capacity of quality

public universities is limited and new ones are not being set up to accommodate the

increasing number of good result achievers in HSC examinations. Only 2 new public

universities were established in the last four or five years while HSC pass rate increased by

around 13 percent during the period. Besides, the number of GPA-5 holders rose four times

since 2005. A total of 442389 students passed HSC examinations and

its equivalent examinations this year with the pass rate being 72.78 and 20136 getting GPA-5.

Public universities including Dhaka University, BUET, Jahangirnagar University, Chittagong

University, Rajshahi University, Khulna University, public medical colleges, Dental colleges,

Leather Technology College and Bangladesh Textile Technology College have only 20,000

seats. Under National University there are 120000 seats available in different colleges.

Criticism and Controversy of Public University

There has been much criticism and controversial issues around public universities in

Bangladesh. Public universities had become places of political unrest, agitation, battle-field

and repression. 12 of the public universities were reported to employ a total of 1,994

unauthorized faculty and staff, resulting an annual overspend of tk. 159,467,000.00 borne by

the government. All were warned by the UGC, but apparently failed to respond to the

warning. Student unrest has resulted in session jams and delays in holding examinations.

During the presidency of Hossain Mohammad Ershad (1982-90) seven to eight years were

being required to complete four years courses. Though it decreased now-a-days but still quite

lengthy in comparison with the private universities.

Role of Private Universities in Business Education

Business Administration: Though in our country the growth in industrail sector is not that

much but still every year it requies new skilled human resource which is supplied by the

private universities through formal business education. The course of Bachelor in Business

Administration has reached enormous height amongst the present generation. In the recent

years, the course has been extensively developed in order to reach the high expectations of

the core based companies that are involved in both, management of the business as well as

within the human resource department. This shows the significance of this course.

BBA is basically the study of Business administration. This includes detailed study of the

various aspects of Business and management of business operations. The importance of BBA

can be estimated easily by knowing the requirements to be a part of the corporate sector. To

work with corporate giants is not very easy now a day. One needs to be very much

specialized with the skills to manage various business operations. In order to gain these skills,

one requires completing the degree course in BBA.

Official Presentation: Now-a-days everything is technology based. In business every

communication is done through modern technology such as report presentation,

communication, quality management etc. For this, presentation through power point is

included in the course curriculum.

Job Interview: In every course that means at least in 12 courses in a year the students of

BBA of private universities are required to sit for Viva Voce in front of their respectable

course instructor which increases the level of confidence among the students. Because every

one will have to face a job interview in job market which is a very difficult task if one is not

well prepared. But in government universities and in the National University students face

viva only one time in a year.

MBA for Executive: MBA for executive helps the executives in different fields who have

completed their traditional master degree, faces the requriment of the completion of business

related program to get promotion.

Evening Campus: Evening campus is introduced in private universities for those who want

to carry their education along with their job in the evening after office hours.

Virtual Campus: There are few private universities working on virtual campus. But still it is

in under development. If it is fully established then the boundary of campus will be

eliminated. It will open a door of new opportunities.

Scholarship: Scholarship is provided to a student with brilliant result abroad. It helps those

students to acquire specalizied higher degree even more.

Fluency in English: A student of private university becomes skilled in English because the

medium of instruction in almost all private universities is English. The student have to

present the prescribed topic in English in front of the whole class even in the Auditorium.

Extra-curricular Activities: Around the year different types of extra-curricular activities are

arranged by the authority of private universities such as Business Festival, Young

Entrepreneurship Festival, Case Study, Essay Writing, Seminar, Workshop and so on. The

student of private universities are kept busy with such extra-curricular activities.

Contribution of Private Universities in Bangladesh

The system of private universities is a relatively new concept in Bangladesh. Due to the ever-

growing demand of educational institutions at the university level and the fact that the

existing public universities could not meet the need, the Government of Bangladesh passed

the Private Universities Act in 1992. Starting off with a handful, the number of private

universities has grown rapidly and stands at 56 to date. The contributions of private

universities in Bangladesh are discussed briefly in below:

Meeting Demand: Out of the 3,19,472 students (other than those in the National University

and Bangladesh Open University) that are enrolled in the various universities of Bangladesh,

57% (1,82,641) are enrolled in the NGUs (Non Government University) while only 43%

(1,36,831) are in the public universities and institution. This re-stresses the need for NGUs.

Foreign Student Enrollment: Out of the foreign students enrolled in Bangladesh

universities, 1049 are in the NGUs while only one-fifth (221) are studying in the public

universities. In addition to earning some foreign exchange by Bangladesh, the concerned

countries will develop higher confidence in the quality of our private universities.

Reducing Brain Drain: Bangladesh is saving foreign exchange by accommodating a large

number of Bangladeshi students (some estimate it as 70,000+) who would have otherwise

spent their money outside the country. We are also aware that not all these students of

Bangladesh could have admission even in the 'B' grade foreign universities, not to speak of

top universities.

Keeping Highly Educated Manpower: In 56 private universities, there are nearly 20,000

employees, including full-time and part-time teachers, officers and staffs. If the private

universities had not been established, a large number of highly educated manpower would

have gone abroad. Though their amount of remuneration in Bangladesh is less than that of

foreign currencies to some extent, yet there is hardly difference in respect of the utility of

such remuneration. Because, the teachers are staying in Bangladesh and utilising their merit

to make newly meritorious and productive manpower. These newly formed modern and

productive meritorious manpower taking part in national development are helping the country

to advance.

Contribution in GDP: As per UGC Report 2008, private universities in Bangladesh spent

over Tk 732 crore, that is, 14 crore per university on average, thus contributing a respectable

amount to the GDP.

Negative Image of Private Universities

There has been much controversy around the private universities, and their practices.

There are many private universities where the educational expense is beyound the

imagination of general people. They are mainly profit seeking institution.

Also among the 56 private universities 11 universities went operational without a

UGC approval which was made a necessity under the Private University Act (1992) in

Bangladesh.

27 private universities in Bangladesh were found running without a Vice-Chancellor.

10 universities were issued a deadline of one year from the UGC to improve

qualities.

The UGC of Bangladesh recommended 8 universities for shutting down due to poor

quality of academic standards. Some were served with show-cause notice by judicial

authorities asking why it would not be closed down.

Some of these universities introduced new academic courses without UGC approval

along with a number of other private universities.

Some others were found to deliver instructions in unauthorized courses and have

illegal campuses.

Wrapping Up

The true growth of an economy depends on the development of a nation and its citizens as

human resources. Higher education plays an inevitable role in such context. Bangladesh is

also not an exception to this. At present there are more than 56 private universities in the

country who are working to develop the business education of Bangladesh along with the

public universities. Distinguished economists and scientists have alluded to the importance of

the growth of human knowledge through formal educational processes that plays significant

role in the development of an economy. Education is, of course, an investment for the future.

A country that deliberately devotes a pro-portion of its resources for education and to

improve the skills and abilities of its young people expects to see change in its economic and

social performance in the years ahead. So both the public and private universities should

work together to develop the business education of Bangladesh. More qualtiy educational

institution should be established to meet the demand of higher education.

References

1. Islam, Manzurul. Improving the standard of Private Universities in Bangladesh:

Some Observations, Star Campus, January 24, 2010

2. Rahman, M. Azizur. Private university: Higher education opportunity in Bangladesh, The

Financial Express, June 21, 2010.

3. http:// edunbd.blogspot.com /

4. http://www.nu.edu.bd/

5. http://www.educationboard.gov.bd/