Lots of students and even their guardians are not aware of a vital fact: the private universities are also under the jurisdiction of the powerful University Grants Commission (UGC). Formed by the country's President, it formulates the administrative and financial guidelines of the country's public and private universities. Its directives are binding on the institutions. Given this fact, twenty-three Dhaka-based private universities' non-compliance with the UGC order that they should move to their permanent campuses by December 31 this year appears startling. A length of 12 years has elapsed since the UGC's allowing the 23 universities to operate temporarily from their present addresses. Few have moved. To elaborate, most of them have failed to take any significant steps in this regard.
A few of them have large students' enrolment as well as sufficient teachers on the staff. Despite the fact that some of the universities are costly with formidably high tuition fees, thanks to their academic excellence, many others lag behind with their students showing below par academic prospects. But with the unabated increase in the number of the latter's students mostly after their failure to get enrolled in public universities, these institutions hardly see any dearth of students. Few are spared their semester fees.
On the other hand, the performance-wise higher grade universities provide special facilities for meritorious students. Universities belonging to this category appear to be positioned comfortably. They can afford to move to their permanent campuses. Maybe, construction-related delays and uncertainties over smooth and lasting communication facilities prompt them to take time to complete the shifting. The smaller and obscure private universities find themselves in a soup after the issuance of the stringent UGC order. There are reasons for being fidgety. In its latest directive after repeated warnings to the defaulting institutions, the UGC authorities categorically say the period of temporary permission to carry out their academic activities ends on December 31 this year. After that it can shut new enrolment in these universities, and take legal actions against them. UGC member Professor Dr Biswajit Chanda has been quoted by a news agency as saying, "Fresh student enrolment and all other activities of these private universities will be shut if they fail to move to their permanent campuses by December 31." The stern message permeating the order is quite clear. A few of the private universities are least bothered about the deadline set by the UGC. They are prepared to shift to their permanent campuses. They have been conducting their activities in part at their new addresses for quite some time. These institutions are apparently out of the purview of the UGC reminders.
Of the total 23 private universities receiving the UGC notice, the real objectives of many are reportedly questionable. The state machinery had made the university education free of all kinds of government strings in order to allow it enjoy autonomous growth in a liberal atmosphere. The prospects for the private universities' growth proved abundant. Entrepreneurs promoting higher education came forward in numbers. In a decade, Dhaka witnessed the opening of private universities one after another. Few could realise that groups of people focused on mere money-making got mixed with the academically bent entrepreneurs. The former opened universities with students indiscriminately picked from the backbenchers. This was a phase of the mushrooming growth of private universities generously distributing graduation and post-graduation certificates. A few, on the other hand, took the added responsibility of accepting research papers. To the horror of the country's scholars, PhD certificates are sold against the so-called researches and theses. These universities using awe-inspiring names once used to dot the capital. The damage these factories of post-graduation and doctoral certificates and professorship had done to the country's academic sector were undoubtedly irreparable. The UGC may have been alerted to the activities of these phony universities.
By demanding that all private universities have their permanent campuses, the grants commission may have swung into the task of uprooting these commercial entities operating under the guise of universities. Barring a few non-serious or run-down ones, the UGC has marked 23 universities as having the capability to shift to their permanent ones. All of them must have been apprised of the condition that they should have their own campuses in the future if not at the initial stage when they started. Private universities have been growing on the myth that it's the students from the affluent families who normally enrol in these institutions. Surprisingly, the exclusive and highly expensive private universities do not fail to draw students. Needless to say, these students in general belong to the upper middle class. Thanks to the students' excellent results, the guardians do not hesitate to part with large chunks of money in tuition fees of their wards. Against this reality, a comfortably large number of the private universities are presumably capable of owning their permanent campuses.
The UGC notice saying that the period of temporary permission granted to the universities ends on 31 December this year and they should move to their own buildings is a rational conclusion. Moreover, they have been given repeated reminders in the last 12 years --- a period long enough to buy plots and construct buildings. The UGC's warning implicitly says that failure to comply with the ultimatum will invite stern measures vis-à-vis these institutions. The measures may end up being a series of disastrous developments for the hapless students, many of whom might be at the end of their university days. Few in society, including the UGC educationists and administrators, are prepared to see the students face this bitter reality.
