The education ministry is going to form an accreditation council within a month to grade the quality of education at the tertiary level, ministry sources said. The sources said the need for the accreditation council was now a pressing issue because the government was stressing the need to achieve quality education by 2030. The Accreditation Council Act 2017 was passed by Parliament in March 2017, but there was no significant progress towards formation of the council.
The sources also said the number of public and private universities in the country was increasing rapidly, but there was no recognised body to give accreditation to the educational institutions based on their performance to ensure quality education.
At present, there are 40 public universities and 101 private universities, providing higher education to both local and international students.
But except the country’s old public universities, such as Dhaka University, Rajshahi University and Chittagong University, the new ones are still grappling with a number of problems, including shortage of quality teachers and lab and research facilities.
On the other hand, most of the private universities, except a few, are mired in a host of problems, including conflicts in the Board of Trustees (BOT), acute crisis of teachers, poor lab and library facilities and lack of quality research.
Some of the private universities still have not been able to move to permanent campuses and some are managing to carry on academic functions with the help of court stay orders.
There are also mounting allegations against the private universities. They are accused of charging high fees from students without providing quality education matching world standards. It has been alleged that many of the private universities do not comply with the Private University Act 2010 and operate as per their whims.
In order to raise the standard of the universities to a certain level, the government felt the need to formulate the Accreditation Council Act 2017, which was passed by the Jatiya Sangsad on March 7, 2017. But the law still remains on paper.
The ministry concerned says the council is essential to ensure quality education.
Even UNESCO, in its Global Education Monitoring Report 2017/18, stated the need
for an accreditation council to ensure quality education at the tertiary level in Bangladesh.
An official of the ministry said: “There has been some progress on formation of the council. We hope it'll be done within a month. The matter has come to the fore of our discussion because it's necessary to ensure quality education by 2030. It's necessary to form the council as soon as possible. The Accreditation Council will play a big role in determining the quality of education. We are looking for qualified persons as per the law for the council. We hope it will take shape soon."
"We see various irregularities in the private universities. Once the council gives accreditation to the institutions and their curriculums, students will be in a position to choose their institutions. Then, the university authorities would have to ensure quality education for their own sake,” he added.
As per the Accreditation law, the council would be an autonomous body, led a chairman, with four full-time and eight part-time members. The chairman, to be appointed by the government, would be a senior university professor having a teaching experience of 25 years and knowledge about quality assurance and accreditation. Public university professors having teaching experience of 20 years and people having experience of working with the state administration for 25 years would be eligible to become full-time and part-time members.
The council would have the authority to provide or cancel accreditation certificates for ensuring quality education. The university authorities would make the accreditation certificates public on their own websites for the people, the law says.
People concerned say the accreditation council is a must to ensure quality education at the tertiary level and grade the universities as per their performance.