Research activities at universities

Research must be given much more emphasis in the universities

As there is a serious lack of research activities at the tertiary education level in Bangladesh, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has proposed to establish a university in the country whose sole focus would be research. It is well known that the country is lagging behind when it comes to research work. The universities mainly focus on class room teaching, not research. Education is the backbone of a nation and teachers are its conscience, so goes the maxim.  The progress of a nation cannot be expected without quality education. Teachers are responsible for steering a nation ahead; they are responsible for making worthy citizens of the country. Their task is an uphill one but not impossible.  
What is worrying is that many university teachers are not taking their  profession seriously enough. Thus the standards of education are not up to the mark and students are bearing the brunt of the situation. Mushrooming of educational institutions and coaching centres in different places of the country, particularly in the capital city Dhaka, amply testifies to that. Why so many coaching centres? What purposes do these coaching centres serve?  A section of teachers from the university level down to the primary school level have commercialised the education in a manner that it has provoked a number of questions. 
    Teaching at university level and teaching at secondary and higher secondary level is not the same. This is truer in this age of IT revolution. A university teacher cannot confine his/her teaching to a stereotypical way. He/she needs exhaustive study, a lot of research, erudition and brainstorming for facing students. What will teachers teach their students when they are yet to overcome their limitations? A commercial minded teacher cannot teach students with a missionary zeal. What is disturbing to note is that a  good number of teachers of different public universities are staying abroad in the name of education leave. Often they are overstaying. Their absence has caused major disruptions in running the academic activities of the universities.       
There are also allegations that while enjoying the leave many of the teachers are serving at private universities with high salaries. On the other hand, many teachers have joined private universities without taking any leave. The research activities at public universities are far from satisfactory, while the same are even more appalling at private universities. 

 

Research activities at universities

Research must be given much more emphasis in the universities

As there is a serious lack of research activities at the tertiary education level in Bangladesh, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has proposed to establish a university in the country whose sole focus would be research. It is well known that the country is lagging behind when it comes to research work. The universities mainly focus on class room teaching, not research. Education is the backbone of a nation and teachers are its conscience, so goes the maxim. The progress of a nation cannot be expected without quality education. Teachers are responsible for steering a nation ahead; they are responsible for making worthy citizens of the country. Their task is an uphill one but not impossible. What is worrying is that many university teachers are not taking their profession seriously enough. Thus the standards of education are not up to the mark and students are bearing the brunt of the situation. Mushrooming of educational institutions and coaching centres in different places of the country, particularly in the capital city Dhaka, amply testifies to that. Why so many coaching centres? What purposes do these coaching centres serve? A section of teachers from the university level down to the primary school level have commercialised the education in a manner that it has provoked a number of questions. Teaching at university level and teaching at secondary and higher secondary level is not the same. This is truer in this age of IT revolution. A university teacher cannot confine his/her teaching to a stereotypical way. He/she needs exhaustive study, a lot of research, erudition and brainstorming for facing students. What will teachers teach their students when they are yet to overcome their limitations? A commercial minded teacher cannot teach students with a missionary zeal. What is disturbing to note is that a good number of teachers of different public universities are staying abroad in the name of education leave. Often they are overstaying. Their absence has caused major disruptions in running the academic activities of the universities. There are also allegations that while enjoying the leave many of the teachers are serving at private universities with high salaries. On the other hand, many teachers have joined private universities without taking any leave. The research activities at public universities are far from satisfactory, while the same are even more appalling at private universities.