Private universities: A half-full glass

Dr. Hafiz G.A Siddiqi

Photo: Yamin Tauseef Jahangir

THE emergence of private universities in Bangladesh is a recent phenomenon. As in most other post-colonial nations, In Bangladesh also the provision of higher education was assumed to be the responsibility of the state. Thus, the government carried the responsibility of establishing, funding and managing all institutions of higher education until 1993. Until then, there were no exclusively privately funded and managed universities.

The emergence of private universities was prompted by several factors. Of these, I mention two of the most significant here: (1) Demand for higher education increased much faster than the public university system could cope with; and (2) the government's inability to mobilize financial resources needed to establish and run an adequate number of public universities with required enrolment capacities. In addition, by this time globally and nationally, there was a general shift in ideology, with a preference toward privatization and market-based provision of education.

The continuous widening of the gap between the supply of and demand for higher education opened up new opportunities; private entrepreneurs, philanthropists and social leaders stepped in to fill this gap. They took considerable risks in establishing private universities. At the time, few people believed that the private sector would be able to impart high quality higher education. They feared that it was too risky to entrust such a responsibility to the private sector. However, this fear proved to be unfounded by the end of 1996 when the first batch of graduates produced by North South University, the first government approved private university, were employed by multi-nationals and other employers quickly. This success indicated that the education imparted by the first private university was as good as, if not better than, that of established public universities.

The government too realized that without a public-private partnership, the demand for higher education could not be met. In order to provide a legal framework, the government enacted the Private Universities Act 1992 (subsequently repealed and replaced by the Private University Act 2010); the assumption was that these universities would supplement government efforts to meet the demand for higher education. The operation of private universities was encouraged not to replace public ones but to work side by side with them.

Under the 1992 Act any private individual or group of individuals and philanthropic organizations (Trusts or Foundations) could establish and run a degree-awarding self-financed university if they fulfilled certain conditions. The response from the private sector was encouraging and within a short period of time, private institutions emerged as successful providers of higher education.

Private universities in general follow the American education system, that is, a four-year first degree program consisting of 12 Semesters. With the success of the first university many other philanthropists came forward. Within a short time the number of private universities crossed the number of public universities. There are as many as 54 private universities as opposed to 31 public universities. More private universities are in the pipeline. Currently, about 175000 and 200000 students are studying at public and private universities respectively. This means private universities are gaining higher visibility, although all of them are not of high quality.

However, with the rapid increase in the number of universities with large enrolments, the founders faced several constraints. A major limitation was the paucity of surplus funds to build modern campuses with adequate infrastructural facilities like ICT-supported class rooms, lecture theatres, labs, auditorium, libraries, recreation centers, gyms, cafeteria, etc. Until very recently, almost all private universities held their classes in rented buildings which were not suitable for a university setting. None of them was able to build their own permanent campuses in 5 years, the time limit set in the Private University Act 1992.

In addition, there was a dearth of teachers, well equipped class rooms and labs, teaching aids, library and other resources.

As has happened in many countries, the mushrooming of private education led to the establishment and continuation of low quality universities in Bangladesh as well. Reportedly, some founders ran their institutions as business ventures, with profit-making as their primary motive. They admitted students and collected tuition money but did not hire qualified teachers nor did they have class rooms well-equipped with appropriate teaching aids. Admission was not selective; anyone who could pay tuition and other fees would get admission. Revenue was their main consideration, not the quality of education. At the end, students found themselves cheated. Inevitably, the students, guardians, government and the society as a whole became disillusioned.

The government therefore decided to ameliorate the situation by creating an environment in which non-performing low quality universities would no longer be able to operate unregulated. On review, the government thought that the Private University Act 1992/98 was not geared to quality assurance. Eventually, Parliament repealed the 1992 Act and passed the Private University Act 2010. For good governance and better management the new Act makes provision of several statutory bodies like Board of Trustee(BOT), Syndicate, Academic Council, Curriculum Committee, Finance Committee, Faculty Appointment Committee, Disciplinary Committee, etc. and provision of punishment for non-compliance. The representation of the founders, government, UGC, teachers and academia in these bodies is prescribed. The new Act makes the Vice Chancellor (VC) a member of the BOT.

On behalf of the government, the University Grants Commission (UGC), an agency of the Ministry of Education (MOE) supervises and monitors all private universities. The government grants permission to operate a private university on recommendation of the UGC. A university must have all its academic and degree programs including individual course curricula approved by the UGC. The UGC is authorized to ask for any information on the universities, and inspect a university to determine whether it complies with the requirements of Private University Act. The university however has freedom to fix the tuition and other fees and teachers' remuneration but is required to inform the UGC of the fee and salary structures. The university is required to be transparent in revenue collections and expenditures, and must submit to UGC and MOE annual audited financial reports.

The new Act includes provisions for quality assurance, check and balance for preventing wrongdoing, and institutionalizing good governance through participatory management. To ensure participatory management, the 2010 Act requires that the founders and university management hold at least one meeting a year for exchanging views with teachers, students, parents/guardians, alumni of the university and other stakeholders.

Beside, the new Act requires the establishment of a government-sponsored but independent Accreditation Council (AC). Accreditation is a certification and ranking of quality of education. An Accreditation Council is different from the UGC though their functions partially overlap. The UGC monitors and supervises universities to ensure compliance with the rules and regulations of the Private University Act. For example, UGC determines if a particular university has built its own campus within the time limit stated in the Act or an academic program offered by a particular university meets professional standards.

On the other hand, the functions of the AC are completely geared to determining the quality of education imparted by a university. It also determines if a system has been instituted within the university to improve quality continually. The installation of a quality assurance program is a function of voluntary drive, initiatives and steps taken by the individual universities. The AC reviews and assesses the drives, initiatives and actual steps taken by the university, and then certifies the quality level of individual degree programs/schools or the university as a whole using specific yard stick. After the whole process is completed, accreditation is granted for a given period or it may be denied if the university fails to meet the quality criteria. An AC shares the information/results of its exercises with the MOE, UGC and the general public. The assumption is that dissemination of such information (ranking of the university) puts universities in a competitive position and consequently motivates them to continually improve the quality of education. Moreover, having an array of institutions to choose from allows students choose programs that meet their specific study goals. Obviously, a university accredited by an internationally recognized AC holds higher reputation than a non-accredited university.

Only non-profit private universities are allowed to operate in Bangladesh, although there are many for-profit universities in the world. The founders of a private university are not allowed to take away the surplus if any, in the form of dividend or direct financial benefits. If there is any surplus, that must be ploughed back for the development and expansion of the university. Private universities here do not get any financial or material support from the government. Moreover, surpluses are subject to 15% income tax.

Autonomy versus Regulation
As in most countries, the founders of private universities want to have full control over the management of the university; against this the government/UGC want to have full supervisory and monitoring function for quality assurance and protecting the interest of students. According to the MOE/UGC, the new Act has been designed to take a balanced approach. However, the Association of Private Universities, the mouthpiece of the founders, argue that the 2010 ACT provides scope for undue interference by the Govt. in the management of universities, and thus the Act will have discouraging effect on the sector. In contrast, the Government claims the new Act will minimize the scope of disputes among stake holders, therefore help promote good governance.

Limitations of the Current Model
Almost all private universities are market-driven and tuition-driven. By implication, private universities offer only those degree programs which they can sell in the market at high prices i.e. charging high tuition and other fees. This limits the kind of degrees and programs offered. For instance, the humanities and social sciences are marginalized in favor of business and computer science-driven ICT courses.

Since private universities do not get any financial support from the government, and do not have endowments from which to draw on (unlike in the US) they depend entirely on tuition for operation, maintenance and expansion. Of necessity, they need to generate a large surplus to build, for instance, suitable campuses. Part of the surplus generated currently is being used to buy and develop land on which campus buildings are to be constructed. In a sense, these universities require the current generation of students to subsidize the education of future generations who will attend classes in the buildings/class rooms built with tuition money of the former.

Since tuition and fees are the only sources of revenues, the sustainability of a private university is a function of how carefully the academic programs offered are selected, and how the tuition structures are designed. From experience so far, it is evident that students want to study primarily those courses which more or less guarantee them better job prospects. Therefore in almost all private universities Business Schools have the largest enrolment followed by IT related subjects. Very few universities offer degrees in subjects that are socially desirable like Philosophy, Sociology, Bangla, etc.

The private universities, particularly the good ones are much more expensive than the public universities. There is a general allegation that poor students are denied access to private universities. This allegation is however debatable. The Private University Act 2010 requires the founders to allow at least 6% of the registered meritorious but financially disadvantaged students to study at the university free of cost. Most universities comply with this requirement. Therefore, poor students can also study at good private universities if they are meritorious.

Private universities of Bangladesh frequently claim their commitment to quality assurance. But in reality, only a small number of universities can maintain quality. There are many reasons for this situation. Some important reasons are: After 12 years of education, brighter candidates opt for public universities because those are inexpensive and enjoy higher reputation. Those who fail there try first to get admission into better private universities. Residual lower quality students tend to go to low quality private universities. These low quality students create problems for the universities in maintaining quality. However, most of these universities struggle to mobilize resources necessary for quality assurance. Usually these universities fail to attract good teachers. They greatly depend on teachers retired from other universities, particularly from public universities, retired bureaucrats, and part timers from public universities who teach at several universities to maximize their ready cash. Dearth of teachers causes some collateral damage on quality. Because too many students are admitted to maximize revenue, university teachers (both full time and part time) are required to teach more than normal loads. When teachers are burdened with too many courses, their teaching efficiency automatically goes down, so does quality of education. This situation persists not only because there is a dearth of teachers, it persists also because the university management finds overloading the teachers cheaper. The resource poor universities with low image are in vicious circle. They cannot attract adequate number of good students. To increase their revenue they admit too many poor quality students. They cannot recruit reputable teachers. All these factors lower their image. They continue to impart low quality education. However, this is not some thing that exists only in Bangladesh. Such low quality universities co-exist with high quality world class universities in almost all countries.

Conclusion
The phenomenal growth of private universities indicates the important role they play in imparting higher education in Bangladesh. These universities produce much needed highly skilled manpower. Many of their graduates are employable both locally and internationally. The number of students that go to foreign countries for undergraduate studies has decreased. This saves a huge amount of foreign exchange. The graduates of these universities contribute substantially to national development.

The demand for world class private universities will increase further in future. Without private universities national demand for higher education cannot be met. Both public and private universities must coexist to supplement and complement each other.

Given the performances of the founders and UGC/Government, one can rightly conclude that the emergence of private universities in Bangladesh is a success story. However, there is still much to be desired. There are many valid criticisms against private universities. Only a few universities impart high quality education. In other universities quality of education is poor. They do not emphasize research. There are cases of corruption and admission/grades trading. In spite of this, Bangladesh is not in worse situation than many other countries. For example, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, India, and Pakistan, to name only a few, have more poor quality private universities than high quality universities. Bangladesh does neither need to be cynical nor complacent; private universities of Bangladesh have high potential. The most important requirements are (1) the founders must be willing only to serve the nation as philanthropists, and not to make money; and (2) UGC/Government must play the role of facilitator while implementing the private university Act. There must not be any undue interference from either UGC or MOE which may de-motivate the founders. Give the private universities 25 more years. There will be more world class universities than low grade universities in Bangladesh. It is encouraging to recall that the Education Minister has at a recently held Press Conference expressed his determination to root out non-performing universities. I believe that when the proposed Accreditation Council will go into operation, the situation will continue to improve. Given the past progress and future potential, Bangladesh has reason to see half the glass full.

The writer is Vice Chancellor, North South University.