ENGLISH ASSIGNMENT:

Improving the Higher Education Sector In

Bangladesh To a New Direction

Submitted to:
Bijoy Lal Basu
Assistant Professor
Department of English
University of Dhaka

Submitted by:
Syeda Ilfat Abedin
Roll No- 44
Section A, BBA 21st Batch
Institute of Business Administration

When we think of Higher Education for ourselves what comes to our mind?
Australia? England? USA? Malaysia? Yeah, probably all of the above, but not
Bangladesh. And why is that? Why isnt our own country counted as an appropriate place
for higher education? Well the reasons are numerous. Corruption, financial crisis,
shortage of seats for the applicants, lack of modern equipments and facilities at libraries
and laboratories are some of the main reasons.
Although not an easy task, we try to find out ways to overcome the lackings in our
education system and strategically move forward:
Adequate number of seats: Around eight lakh students finishing high school every year
in Bangladesh, and look forward to getting into a Public university. Bangladesh has some
thirty-two public universities providing education to the bulk of higher studies students.
These universities are funded by the government while managed as self-governed
organizations. But the seats in Public Universities are in no way adequate and private
universities are not considered up to the mark. Right now we need more public
universities for the poor, and the meritorious. Moreover, new institutes should be opened
aiming at reducing regional imbalances and resource mobilization.
Appropriate subjects: There are certain subjects that are not available in Bangladesh.
Students aspiring for those subjects have to turn to foreign universities for a degree in
that certain subject. Necessary departments and institutes should be opened in all
neglected fields of education, all throughout the country, with of course, enough number
of seats.
Participatory and Research Based Education: Higher education should be highly
participatory, reciprocal and research based. Both teachers and students should
spontaneously participate in this learning process and research activities. Today is no
longer the book based education era. It is time for participatory learning, and it is the
main requirement for a positive change in the Higher Education System in Bangladesh.
Elevating the Standards of the Syllabus: The world is ever changing. Science is
bringing in new discoveries, new business tactics are being invented, and new
technologies are coming to our reach. In this fast paced world, the fact that the syllabus
be so out-dated is almost derisive. Yet, it is true for our education system. The syllabus of
university education should be modern, time-bound and of International standards. The
university authorities have to plunge in new and innovative courses and ideas in the
learning process.

Facilitating the Institution: Many universities in our country offer certain courses that
are not properly facilitated, much to the dismay of both the faculties and the students.
Almost all the engineering universities in the city have to turn to BUET for their fully
facilitated labs. Both Public and private universities have to take the initiative and put up
decent, fully functional laboratories.
Libraries: Higher Education books? Please, go to Nilkhet. Yes that is the most
common scenario in the country. Medical, engineering, business ad every other course
books are available ONLY at Nilkhet. The distance, the traffic and the crowd make it
quite impossible for some people to come to this shopping arena, so to speak. Even the
University libraries are not as braced with books as Nilkhet. The point is, we need and
desperately need libraries enriched with all sorts of books
Accountability and Transparency in Administration: To make higher education
sustainable the university management has to create their own sources of income for
abating the dependency on government allocations. One of the important roles of the
university management is to ensure the proper connection of income with different types
of costs. Furthermore, the university management should be free of corruption so that
transparency prevails in every spheres of administration.
Transparent Recruitment for both Teachers and Students: Bangladesh is a politically
driven country. Even University Student Teacher recruitment sometimes has political
involvements. Unplanned and political recruitment lowers the standard of education. In
this context, priority should be given to merit, academic results and research work.
Digitalization: In todays technologically advanced world, education is meager without
technology. Researches, course studies, background reading require the Internet.
Improving educational infrastructures such as computers, internet, and projectors are
prerequisite for todays education.
Teacher-Student Politics: Student politics- a very negatively used term in Bangladesh.
Politics amongst students was supposed to create leaders of the future, be constructive
and bring welfare to students. But to us it means conflicts and carnage. We have to direct
the student politics towards a safe and useful asset of the future.
Beside all these, the Education Board should convene invitation meetings of
experts in learning, teaching, assessment and curriculum design in higher education.
Another priority is educating research students to become effective leaders, which
includes being good leaders of their fellow classmates professional development. Session
jams should be tried and removed from our universities.

The economy, development and welfare of a country bank on higher education. If

we are able to boost our higher education sector, we will have worthy business corporate,
engineers, doctors and teachers produced on our soil, serving our country. We could
encourage foreign students to get their degrees from Bangladesh, rather than going
abroad, to their countries. Maybe that would be the start, of glorious and developed
Bangladesh.