Private universities sans vice chancellor
Private universities of Bangladesh are mired with problems of one kind or the other. They become always subjects of news for various anomalies that seem to be perennially with them. According to a report of this newspaper yesterday, in 39 of the 95 existing private universities the key position of the vice chancellor is remaining vacant for a long time. In many universities there is also no pro-vice chancellor or a treasurer. This means that these higher seats of education are running more as a business venture rather than academic institutions. The concept of the trustee board as the managing authorities is having little success.
But the post of the vice chancellor is a vital one for running the academic as well as administrative affairs of a university smoothly. It is learnt that the University Grants Commission (UGC) urged the relevant universities to take action in this regard but the authorities of these universities are not paying heed. This means that somehow the authorities are convinced that they can go away without a vice chancellor for their universities. Otherwise they would have acted what was crucially necessary for their institution.
For the absence of a vice chancellor in their universities, the trustee boards of these academic institutions have to take responsibility, of this there is no doubt. But as overseeing authorities of private universities of Bangladesh, the UGC as well as the education ministry will have to take the share of the responsibility. If the UGC or government for that matter does not want to take the responsibility, then it has to take a strong position in this regard.
According to the report, as of March 13, some of the 39 universities have sent the panel proposal with the names of three candidates for the VC post to the UGC. But unfortunately, there are many proposals that do not comply with the Private University Act, 2010.
There is not only the problem of absence of a vice chancellor in so many private universities, many of these privately-run tertiary academic institutions do not have their permanent campuses and are running their academic activities in buildings in the capital where busy shopping malls are situated. This is how the universities authorities are denying what the students genuinely deserve. Time and again, deadline was offered to these universities to go to their permanent campuses, but they are failing to do so. The UGC must find ways so that the authorities comply with what the Private University Act, 2010 stipulates as mandatory for them.
