Rethinking business education
Khan Mohammad Faisal
Bangladesh is on the verge of becoming a formidable economy by the end of this decade and is likely to be in the top 30 predicted by the economists. Our country has experienced unprecedented growth in the last two decades in spite of the political turmoil and lack of infrastructure and foreign direct investment. The last decade has been particularly bright with an average of 6% growth every year which somehow managed to tackle the global financial meltdowns in the western world. While it may not be growing as fast as China or neighboring India, the pace of this sustainable growth is likely to increase anyway. On top of that we are also experiencing the demographic dividend which is basically having the power of larger share of young people in the country contrasted to aging economy like Japan.
There are plenty of problems for which further growth rate is constrained but I would be talking about the human capital powering these businesses, more specifically about the business students, who also happen to make the largest student group in the country. Singapore is an example of what human capital can achieve given opportunities provided to demonstrate their capabilities. Singapore has no natural resources but they have one of the highest purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita, more than the economic powerhouse United States. The development of tertiary business education has not been acknowledged properly in Bangladesh to my knowledge, being a business student in one of the private universities in Dhaka. The top public business schools, arguably IBA, Dhaka Universitys Business Departments and the new IBAs set up in Jahangirnagar, Rajshahi and Chittagong are somewhat challenged by the first wave of private university business schools of BRAC, NSU, IUB and EWU, and the second wave of private universities like Stamford, UIU and ULAB still have not fully laid down its objectives for its business schools. All private universities are dominated by the large business departments yet there is lack of excitement beside the few business case competitions. The 87 odd universities (54 of them private) have managed to churn out a huge pool of business graduates every year and its growing but the productivity of these graduates are questionable.
While we could have expected in more productivity by the addition of more skilled workers due to demographic dividend and the increasing number of graduates what it has really done over the years is inflate the business degree itself. Its not enough to have a bachelors degree any more to get into a decent job as now you need an MBA to land on a decent job which is also on the verge of becoming obsolete as there are so many of them. We need to diversify business education itself by focusing on Entrepreneurship and SME related majors and also figure out how to motivate the bunch to be more entrepreneurial. Moreover, our economy is heavily dependent on foreign remittance; it is very unfortunate that the qualifications of our business graduates are not acknowledged internationally which could have allowed a certain percentage of business degree holders to work outside the country, bringing in more remittance. In many British universities, Bangladeshi degrees are not even considered to be in par with their bachelor degrees. While one may be happy to get masters degree and make a career, the economic cost of not working for two years and the education related cost are pushing us towards a corner, something which we have accepted as a norm.
Our business schools needs to be accredited by international accreditations as soon as possible. Not only this would ensure international standard of business education but will allow business students to make the most of their degrees. We have failed to realize the learning possibilities through work experience and apprenticeships and have over-subscribed to traditional masters. The bureaucratic process in hiring is also a problem but will need another article to discuss which prefers one university over another and not the individuals itself. The mindsets of most business students have been to just obtain a certificate with a good GPA which would land them in a lucrative job instead of becoming entrepreneurial with the skills achieved. These people are better set to get help from the governments and banks for SMEs than any other group of people, yet thats not the case.
Another disturbing observation has been that a good fraction of our brightest business students, arguably from IBA, NSU and BRAC are hunted down by high-profit MNCs selling tobacco, beverages and cosmetics companies who sell cancer, heart diseases and insecurities to the masses. A study of business ethics at both undergraduate and graduate level is hence very essential.
Both public and private universities should integrate and collaborate with the help of UGC to develop a local accreditation body which can affiliate with Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and schools offering MBA needs to get their recognition from Association of MBAs (AMBA). Top business schools worldwide offers MBAs with Triple Accreditation including European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS). Its high time our leading business schools follow suit and hoping the rest learn from it. In this globalized economy with globalized education systems (most of our private universities follow the North American tertiary education model) is in dire need of recognition which in turn would help them maintain the standards essential for success in todays business world. The irony is all private university while hiring mentions lecturers and professors who have North American degree, (including NSU), what does that tell us about the quality of our past business graduates. Why is it unfathomable for them to hire someone who has graduated from a local public or private university even after almost two decades of private universities? How long will we be underestimating and discriminating our own knowledge system. Someone who has done Ph.D from abroad with scholarship is someone who has gained master knowledge of their problems, not ours. The government surely can invest on Ph.D students and stop the brain drain.
Communication abilities and language is another barrier for producing efficient business graduates. The standard of English languages taught at universities is so dismal that only a handful of the graduates can effectively discover more business opportunities. It might be difficult but definitely productive to have a more focus on language learning. The students who already excel in English should have the opportunity to integrate other international languages in their program within the university systems. Language learning alongside the business degree would be more effective than individuals doing it on their own at a foreign language center. Imagine 20 students graduating from a university who are fluent in Spanish. Only 20 of them can play a major role in connecting South American economies to Bangladeshi economies as they would be able to discover new markets for Bangladeshi products while also explore what they have to offer. Its no wonder we dont have diplomatic ties with any South American countries. I am sure we are all aware of the benefits of learning Chinese. Why not Russian? The eastern bloc countries are re-emerging after their Soviet breakdown. A lot of Bangladeshi expatriate workers speak Arabic, some of the educated ones can surely teach. Learning Swahili wound connect us to emerging markets of Africa spoken by at least 90 million people.
As online open source education is trending, most of the knowledge taught in basic business schools can be downloaded for free, anytime of the day (better content in many cases). It is vital for us to study business through case-studies of Bangladeshi economies which would help the business students develop real insights into the workings of our economy. All this might seem daunting, but if it feels like that, then probably someone must choose some other line of study. There is no point in wasting the most precious time of our life doing something we cannot relate to or not enthusiastic about.
With the realization that our primary and secondary education system does not prepare our students well enough for university education, but instead of that making the tertiary system lax is no answer.
While it might be just easer for private universities to make more money by helping them get a certificate, it is an unacceptable mistake on the part of private education providers and public university teachers not to take more responsibility for the work of their lives in order to take our business education to global standards.
The writer is a business graduate
