Education particularly higher education has been through a metamorphosis in recent years. Procedural change, new technological methods and big business initiatives have been added. But ensuring full utilisation of the technological changes in a short time is an uphill task.
In a developing nation like Bangladesh meritorious students go abroad for higher education, with most of them staying back and not returning home after finishing higher studies. It is true for almost all public universities. Merits of these highly qualified people are utilised by the countries where they went for higher education. Considering the financial stake in higher education, it creates additional pressure on the national exchequer and affects long-term prospects of funding higher education which is already highly subsidised. In a survey conducted recently by the UNESCO, about Tk192 billion will be required in next six years to complete graduation and post graduation courses in British, American, Australian, Malaysian and Canadian universities for 15,000 students.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has emphasised technology-driven higher education alongside prioritising research activities. But universities appear to be apathetic towards research. As a result, they are lagging behind in world ranking. Education and research organisation web matrix of Madrid, Spain presented in last July a report on all public and private universities of the world. According to the report based on 150 private and public universities, no university from Bangladesh was included among the first 2000 since the year 2000. Factors considered in the survey were system of education, impact of research activities, transfer of industrial technology, funding and research etc. Leading public universities of Bangladesh were ranked in the following manner: BUET 2034, Bangladesh Agricultural University 2061 and Dhaka University 2275. Harvard University is at the top of the ranking.
Another determinant of the Spanish research council was financial relevance, particularly financial transactions and economic research of the universities. Financial research is relevant to Bangladesh as it is going to be a middle-income country shortly. In that case there is no other alternative than research and teachers of all disciplines must be engaged in dialogues on economic affairs. This will help continue intra-departmental relations of the concerned departments.
To be meaningful, higher education of the country must include professionally oriented disciplines. Garments sector is the highest foreign exchange earner of the country, about 56 per cent of our foreign exchange earning come from the readymade garments. But surprisingly, high level technical positions in our RMG factories are not manned by locals as the country lies way behind in respect of these technicians. There is a clear scarcity of these technicians as there is no university on fashions in the country worth its name to impart education on fashions. According to newspaper reports, every year foreign technicians take away about Tk 6.0 billions in pay and allowances.
There are other areas that need to be concentrated on to ensure standard of higher education. Brain drain must be stopped and as an alternative foreign collaboration approach may be adopted. Franchise collaboration with 5/10 world class universities of Britain, USA, Australia, Malaysia can help us save both money and merit. Specialised teachers of foreign universities may be employed as visiting professor or full timers. Universities should arrange subject-based international seminars twice a year and separate universities should be set up to produce sector-based technicians.
The world is witnessing increasing liberalisation and marketing of higher education. Education should, therefore, be universal and job-oriented. Not just a change in the policy process, but a change in the structure of higher education is the need of the hour.
