It is good to know that two more public universities are going to be established in the country. These universities, very positively, would be specialized universities rather than the generalized ones. Quoting the sources of the University Grants Commission (UGC), a report of this newspaper on Thursday said that one Laxmipur University of Science and Technology would be set up in Laxmipur district. But the location of Aviation University has not yet been fixed. The latter one would be first of its kind in Bangladesh and it would certainly fill the gap in the field.
Though the government has fund limitations, setting up a few public universities instead of giving permission for a dozen private universities which usually fail to produce qualified graduates, is better. From that point of view the news of establishing four more public universities besides these two that are in the pipeline is welcome. The draft laws for setting up of these four universities had already been sent to the education ministry.
The four universities are: Sheikh Hasina University in Netrokona, Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib Science and Technology University in Jamalpur, Chandpur University of Science and Technology and Bogra University of Science and Technology.
The decision to make three of these four universities as science and technology universities is also a good one. To lift Bangladesh as a whole, not just its education, we need to create in our country a strong base of tertiary education. The standard of our tertiary education is still not up to the mark. Many are of the opinion that standard of education in the country’s universities is actually falling. We hardly get any names of Bangladesh’s universities on the list of the names of universities of excellence in the world. One obvious reason behind the falling standard of education in the universities is crass politicization of the universities. This needs to be checked. Then there is the lack of research in the universities.
These days, public university teachers are more interested to work as guest teachers in private universities for money. Still, there are many teachers who do not return to their workplaces in the homeland after they make academic sojourn to foreign countries, simply because life and career development in those countries is lucrative. This is morally reprehensible on the part of these teachers.