Private University

[shibli]

Private universities: A half-full glass

Dr. Hafiz G.A Siddiqi
Photo: Yamin Tauseef Jahangir

THE emergence of private universities in Bangladesh is a recent phenomenon. As in most other post-colonial nations, In Bangladesh also the provision of higher education was assumed to be the responsibility of the state. Thus, the government carried the responsibility of establishing, funding and managing all institutions of higher education until 1993. Until then, there were no exclusively privately funded and managed universities.

The emergence of private universities was prompted by several factors. Of these, I mention two of the most significant here: (1) Demand for higher education increased much faster than the public university system could cope with; and (2) the government's inability to mobilize financial resources needed to establish and run an adequate number of public universities with required enrolment capacities. In addition, by this time globally and nationally, there was a general shift in ideology, with a preference toward privatization and market-based provision of education.

The continuous widening of the gap between the supply of and demand for higher education opened up new opportunities; private entrepreneurs, philanthropists and social leaders stepped in to fill this gap. They took considerable risks in establishing private universities. At the time, few people believed that the private sector would be able to impart high quality higher education. They feared that it was too risky to entrust such a responsibility to the private sector. However, this fear proved to be unfounded by the end of 1996 when the first batch of graduates produced by North South University, the first government approved private university, were employed by multi-nationals and other employers quickly. This success indicated that the education imparted by the first private university was as good as, if not better than, that of established public universities.

The government too realized that without a public-private partnership, the demand for higher education could not be met. In order to provide a legal framework, the government enacted the Private Universities Act 1992 (subsequently repealed and replaced by the Private University Act 2010); the assumption was that these universities would supplement government efforts to meet the demand for higher education. The operation of private universities was encouraged not to replace public ones but to work side by side with them.

Under the 1992 Act any private individual or group of individuals and philanthropic organizations (Trusts or Foundations) could establish and run a degree-awarding self-financed university if they fulfilled certain conditions. The response from the private sector was encouraging and within a short period of time, private institutions emerged as successful providers of higher education.

Private universities in general follow the American education system, that is, a four-year first degree program consisting of 12 Semesters. With the success of the first university many other philanthropists came forward. Within a short time the number of private universities crossed the number of public universities. There are as many as 54 private universities as opposed to 31 public universities. More private universities are in the pipeline. Currently, about 175000 and 200000 students are studying at public and private universities respectively. This means private universities are gaining higher visibility, although all of them are not of high quality.

However, with the rapid increase in the number of universities with large enrolments, the founders faced several constraints. A major limitation was the paucity of surplus funds to build modern campuses with adequate infrastructural facilities like ICT-supported class rooms, lecture theatres, labs, auditorium, libraries, recreation centers, gyms, cafeteria, etc. Until very recently, almost all private universities held their classes in rented buildings which were not suitable for a university setting. None of them was able to build their own permanent campuses in 5 years, the time limit set in the Private University Act 1992.

In addition, there was a dearth of teachers, well equipped class rooms and labs, teaching aids, library and other resources.

As has happened in many countries, the mushrooming of private education led to the establishment and continuation of low quality universities in Bangladesh as well. Reportedly, some founders ran their institutions as business ventures, with profit-making as their primary motive. They admitted students and collected tuition money but did not hire qualified teachers nor did they have class rooms well-equipped with appropriate teaching aids. Admission was not selective; anyone who could pay tuition and other fees would get admission. Revenue was their main consideration, not the quality of education. At the end, students found themselves cheated. Inevitably, the students, guardians, government and the society as a whole became disillusioned.

The government therefore decided to ameliorate the situation by creating an environment in which non-performing low quality universities would no longer be able to operate unregulated. On review, the government thought that the Private University Act 1992/98 was not geared to quality assurance. Eventually, Parliament repealed the 1992 Act and passed the Private University Act 2010. For good governance and better management the new Act makes provision of several statutory bodies like Board of Trustee(BOT), Syndicate, Academic Council, Curriculum Committee, Finance Committee, Faculty Appointment Committee, Disciplinary Committee, etc. and provision of punishment for non-compliance. The representation of the founders, government, UGC, teachers and academia in these bodies is prescribed. The new Act makes the Vice Chancellor (VC) a member of the BOT.

On behalf of the government, the University Grants Commission (UGC), an agency of the Ministry of Education (MOE) supervises and monitors all private universities. The government grants permission to operate a private university on recommendation of the UGC. A university must have all its academic and degree programs including individual course curricula approved by the UGC. The UGC is authorized to ask for any information on the universities, and inspect a university to determine whether it complies with the requirements of Private University Act. The university however has freedom to fix the tuition and other fees and teachers' remuneration but is required to inform the UGC of the fee and salary structures. The university is required to be transparent in revenue collections and expenditures, and must submit to UGC and MOE annual audited financial reports.

The new Act includes provisions for quality assurance, check and balance for preventing wrongdoing, and institutionalizing good governance through participatory management. To ensure participatory management, the 2010 Act requires that the founders and university management hold at least one meeting a year for exchanging views with teachers, students, parents/guardians, alumni of the university and other stakeholders.

Beside, the new Act requires the establishment of a government-sponsored but independent Accreditation Council (AC). Accreditation is a certification and ranking of quality of education. An Accreditation Council is different from the UGC though their functions partially overlap. The UGC monitors and supervises universities to ensure compliance with the rules and regulations of the Private University Act. For example, UGC determines if a particular university has built its own campus within the time limit stated in the Act or an academic program offered by a particular university meets professional standards.

On the other hand, the functions of the AC are completely geared to determining the quality of education imparted by a university. It also determines if a system has been instituted within the university to improve quality continually. The installation of a quality assurance program is a function of voluntary drive, initiatives and steps taken by the individual universities. The AC reviews and assesses the drives, initiatives and actual steps taken by the university, and then certifies the quality level of individual degree programs/schools or the university as a whole using specific yard stick. After the whole process is completed, accreditation is granted for a given period or it may be denied if the university fails to meet the quality criteria. An AC shares the information/results of its exercises with the MOE, UGC and the general public. The assumption is that dissemination of such information (ranking of the university) puts universities in a competitive position and consequently motivates them to continually improve the quality of education. Moreover, having an array of institutions to choose from allows students choose programs that meet their specific study goals. Obviously, a university accredited by an internationally recognized AC holds higher reputation than a non-accredited university.

Only non-profit private universities are allowed to operate in Bangladesh, although there are many for-profit universities in the world. The founders of a private university are not allowed to take away the surplus if any, in the form of dividend or direct financial benefits. If there is any surplus, that must be ploughed back for the development and expansion of the university. Private universities here do not get any financial or material support from the government. Moreover, surpluses are subject to 15% income tax.

Autonomy versus Regulation
As in most countries, the founders of private universities want to have full control over the management of the university; against this the government/UGC want to have full supervisory and monitoring function for quality assurance and protecting the interest of students. According to the MOE/UGC, the new Act has been designed to take a balanced approach. However, the Association of Private Universities, the mouthpiece of the founders, argue that the 2010 ACT provides scope for undue interference by the Govt. in the management of universities, and thus the Act will have discouraging effect on the sector. In contrast, the Government claims the new Act will minimize the scope of disputes among stake holders, therefore help promote good governance.

Limitations of the Current Model
Almost all private universities are market-driven and tuition-driven. By implication, private universities offer only those degree programs which they can sell in the market at high prices i.e. charging high tuition and other fees. This limits the kind of degrees and programs offered. For instance, the humanities and social sciences are marginalized in favor of business and computer science-driven ICT courses.

Since private universities do not get any financial support from the government, and do not have endowments from which to draw on (unlike in the US) they depend entirely on tuition for operation, maintenance and expansion. Of necessity, they need to generate a large surplus to build, for instance, suitable campuses. Part of the surplus generated currently is being used to buy and develop land on which campus buildings are to be constructed. In a sense, these universities require the current generation of students to subsidize the education of future generations who will attend classes in the buildings/class rooms built with tuition money of the former.

Since tuition and fees are the only sources of revenues, the sustainability of a private university is a function of how carefully the academic programs offered are selected, and how the tuition structures are designed. From experience so far, it is evident that students want to study primarily those courses which more or less guarantee them better job prospects. Therefore in almost all private universities Business Schools have the largest enrolment followed by IT related subjects. Very few universities offer degrees in subjects that are socially desirable like Philosophy, Sociology, Bangla, etc.

The private universities, particularly the good ones are much more expensive than the public universities. There is a general allegation that poor students are denied access to private universities. This allegation is however debatable. The Private University Act 2010 requires the founders to allow at least 6% of the registered meritorious but financially disadvantaged students to study at the university free of cost. Most universities comply with this requirement. Therefore, poor students can also study at good private universities if they are meritorious.

Private universities of Bangladesh frequently claim their commitment to quality assurance. But in reality, only a small number of universities can maintain quality. There are many reasons for this situation. Some important reasons are: After 12 years of education, brighter candidates opt for public universities because those are inexpensive and enjoy higher reputation. Those who fail there try first to get admission into better private universities. Residual lower quality students tend to go to low quality private universities. These low quality students create problems for the universities in maintaining quality. However, most of these universities struggle to mobilize resources necessary for quality assurance. Usually these universities fail to attract good teachers. They greatly depend on teachers retired from other universities, particularly from public universities, retired bureaucrats, and part timers from public universities who teach at several universities to maximize their ready cash. Dearth of teachers causes some collateral damage on quality. Because too many students are admitted to maximize revenue, university teachers (both full time and part time) are required to teach more than normal loads. When teachers are burdened with too many courses, their teaching efficiency automatically goes down, so does quality of education. This situation persists not only because there is a dearth of teachers, it persists also because the university management finds overloading the teachers cheaper. The resource poor universities with low image are in vicious circle. They cannot attract adequate number of good students. To increase their revenue they admit too many poor quality students. They cannot recruit reputable teachers. All these factors lower their image. They continue to impart low quality education. However, this is not some thing that exists only in Bangladesh. Such low quality universities co-exist with high quality world class universities in almost all countries.

Conclusion
The phenomenal growth of private universities indicates the important role they play in imparting higher education in Bangladesh. These universities produce much needed highly skilled manpower. Many of their graduates are employable both locally and internationally. The number of students that go to foreign countries for undergraduate studies has decreased. This saves a huge amount of foreign exchange. The graduates of these universities contribute substantially to national development.

The demand for world class private universities will increase further in future. Without private universities national demand for higher education cannot be met. Both public and private universities must coexist to supplement and complement each other.

Given the performances of the founders and UGC/Government, one can rightly conclude that the emergence of private universities in Bangladesh is a success story. However, there is still much to be desired. There are many valid criticisms against private universities. Only a few universities impart high quality education. In other universities quality of education is poor. They do not emphasize research. There are cases of corruption and admission/grades trading. In spite of this, Bangladesh is not in worse situation than many other countries. For example, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, India, and Pakistan, to name only a few, have more poor quality private universities than high quality universities. Bangladesh does neither need to be cynical nor complacent; private universities of Bangladesh have high potential. The most important requirements are (1) the founders must be willing only to serve the nation as philanthropists, and not to make money; and (2) UGC/Government must play the role of facilitator while implementing the private university Act. There must not be any undue interference from either UGC or MOE which may de-motivate the founders. Give the private universities 25 more years. There will be more world class universities than low grade universities in Bangladesh. It is encouraging to recall that the Education Minister has at a recently held Press Conference expressed his determination to root out non-performing universities. I believe that when the proposed Accreditation Council will go into operation, the situation will continue to improve. Given the past progress and future potential, Bangladesh has reason to see half the glass full.

The writer is Vice Chancellor, North South University.

[shibli]

Redefining the role of universities
Hafiz G. A. Siddiqi

Traditionally, a university is perceived as an institution that imparts higher education to produce all kinds of highly skilled manpower the society needs for its overall development. It undertakes research to create knowledge for national and global benefit. The universities and societies are interdependent. They help each other develop. In the final analysis a university is an institution of higher learning. However, this characterisation does not encompass all the roles a university plays.

There was a time when roles of the universities were limited, elitist and exclusively for men. Oxford and Cambridge admitted women several centuries after they were established. The establishment of the oldest universities was church based. However, the intellectual discourses at the universities revealed a need for qualitative change in their role. By early 19th century, the modern universities dropped their elitist attire and started getting inclusive, admitting both men and women from all strata of society.

The modern universities paved the way for rapid social and cultural changes, becoming more secular and democratic. The changes gradually transformed the universities into cultural institutions that mold young minds. Andre Beteille says: "University education became socially significant because, as open and secular institutions, the universities served as examples and models of a new kind of social existence. The universities provided fertile breeding grounds for a new ideal of social life." This makes a university a social organisation. It deeply interacts with the society and provides "public services" outside the classrooms for the benefit of the society.

With secular and democratic policy of enrolment, universities have come close to common people. Professors no longer philosophise sitting in ivory towers. Universities create social capital through networking among scholars/academics and through collaborations with business houses. Since education is a globalised service, such networking extends globally. In the process, this leads to social changes, making the universities agents of change.

A university is also an economic enterprise. There is a mix of for-profit and not-for-profit universities. As incubators of new ideas, universities serve as economic engines. In advanced countries research is undertaken to invent new technologies or processes to produce new products, patents or processes to serve the society better at lower cost. Many research activities tend to become business. Comprehensive universities maintain large "incubators"-- workshops, industrial laboratories -- where experiments are undertaken jointly with business houses to invent new products and processes. Commercialisation of the related patents, processes and products attracts new investment and creates new employment.

Unfortunately, business houses in Bangladesh do not support private universities in joint research by establishing "incubators" primarily because such a culture does not exist. The universities should try to win the confidence of large business houses by commercialising viable patents. Business houses should support the universities for mutual benefits.

Private universities manifest economic roles much more strongly. For example, in Bangladesh, all the private universities are market and tuition driven. They operate on business principles. For their sustainability, all of them generate huge surpluses, although most of them claim to be not-for profit. These universities have made investments worth billions of taka. They employ a large number of teachers, administrative staff and other employees.

Besides, they spend huge amount of money in large procurements. All these economic activities have multiplier effects and certainly contribute to GDP. The ROI in the private education sector is perhaps highest among the legally run businesses in Bangladesh. The private universities pay and cause to pay to the government a huge amount as income tax. All these make universities powerful economic enterprises. The education industry is one of the three largest industries in the world.

Universities play all these roles for the benefit of the society. Unfor-tunately, these roles generate some unintended negative impact. Higher education system, as long as it operates within capitalistic framework, tends to increase social inequality. The ultimate goal of development is to decrease/eliminate social inequality/injustice. But the modern university education so far has failed to reduce/eliminate inequality. Unless adequate interventions are made effective, prestigious expensive universities will tend to continue to widen the economic and social gap between the rich and poor.

The latter group, even if they are meritorious, cannot study at good universities because they are financially disadvantaged. It is, however, true that scholarships are granted to enable the poor students to obtain degrees from good universities. But experience indicates that the scholarships/financial assistance the universities in aggregate provide are far less than what is needed to enable all the meritorious poor students to pursue and complete their studies. Consequently, most of the poor students are unable to go for higher study at good universities, and are deprived of the opportunity to climb up socially and economically. Therefore, mostly richer people get better education and succeed in getting better jobs with higher pay.

As a result, inequality between those who succeed in obtaining degrees from good universities and those who cannot tends to widen. It is a systemic flaw that perpetuates social injustice and defeats the development goals. This creates a dilemma: high quality higher education is necessary but the system enforces social discrimination and works as a deterrent to national development based on equity unless its negative impact is neutralised by appropriate policy.

The policy implication is that higher education should be considered as public good, and the state must ensure that no meritorious students are denied access to higher education at a good university only because they are financially disadvantaged. Policy makers must recognise that perpetuating inequality and injustice is not the goal of higher education; therefore they must revisit the higher education policies.

The writer is former Vice Chancellor, North South University.

E-mail: hafiz.siddiqi91@ gmail.com

[shibli]

Accreditation for quality assurance
Hafiz G. A. Siddiqi

So far about 62 private universities have been established in Bangladesh, with enrolment of about 60% of the university students of the country. This means a larger private sector coexists with a smaller but strong public sector. However, it is generally believed that only a small number of the private universities impart quality education. All these universities are teaching universities; they are not capable of undertaking research of international standard. None of them is ranked globally or regionally, although some are good given local standard.

Quality has become a national concern. This is reflected in the Private University Act 2010 (PUA). PUA, in its Preamble, emphasises the need for providing quality education, and Article 36 requires each university to establish a permanent quality cell to implement and monitor quality assurance programmes. This cell is required to continually evaluate the academic and administrative strengths and weaknesses of the university or its selected programmes. After evaluation, the cell recommends remedies to remove the weaknesses.

At a good university a system of quality assurance is institutionalised to continue the process of self-assessment. But such internal self-assessment does not reveal the comparative position of the university. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the relative quality and image of a university through external and independent assessment. Application of such external assessment leads to measuring the degree of quality assurance. This helps in gaining accreditation.

Accreditation is certification by a recognised external accreditation agency to the effect that the university (or its programmes, viz., Business School or Engineering School) accredited imparts quality education, advances knowledge through faculty research and scholarship, and produces graduates who have achieved specified learning goals.

This external assessment is done by using a predetermined set of criteria. There are many academic and non-academic pre-requisites that a university must fulfill before it gets accredited. A recognised accrediting agency reviews, evaluates and certifies whether or not the applicant university has fulfilled the pre-requisites. Once positive certification is issued it is believed that the institution concerned imparts high quality education.

The accreditation process is rigorous and takes a long time. During assessment exercises, representatives of the accreditation agency make many field visits and spot-checks; hold interviews with the professors, administrators and students; and examine the validity of the credentials the applicant university claims in its self-assessment report. Internal self-assessment is a pre-requisite for both external assessment and accreditation. If there is any lacking, the visitors suggest remedial measures. The applicant institution is required to respond positively to those suggestions. All these are done as peer reviews.

Accreditation by a nationally or globally reputable agency is considered an appropriate instrument for quality assurance, which leads to the enhancement of reputation of the university and its individual academic programmes. Accreditation certifies whether appropriate academic standards are maintained, and whether a built-in mechanism operates internally to continually improve the quality of education in private universities. Accreditation is not static; it calls for continual improvement in the education quality. It is granted for a specific period, mostly for 5 years. After expiry of this period, the applicant institution has to seek renewal.

The initiative for getting accreditation is taken by the institution itself. The first step for the institution seeking accreditation is to apply to the accrediting agency and simultaneously prepare itself by auditing internally the strength and weakness of its academic programmes and teaching and research activities. In the process, the university prepares a self-assessment report. Then the report is reviewed and validated by one or more on-site visits of a team of external assessors designated by the Accreditation Council (AC). The process passes through several steps and final accreditation takes at least five years from the date of submission of application.

When accreditation exercise is completed, the assessment process used and quality level of the accredited university or its programmes are made known to the academic community and the public at large. This is helpful both for the university and its potential students. When there are many institutions of higher learning, students need to know which of them would meet their academic aspirations best. Accreditation generates necessary information for students and other stakeholders. Availability of information on quality and reputation helps students choose the programme/college/university according to their preference.

Accreditation will be of value only if the AC itself has a very high global standing. There is no AC in Bangladesh. However, Private University Act 2010 under Article 38 stipulates establishment of a national, separate and independent AC. When the Council is in place, the private universities of Bangladesh will be required to become its members and then apply for accreditation.

In Bangladesh, the academic programmes run by the private universities need to be approved by the University Grants Commission (UGC), a government agency. But the UGC's approval does not provide the detailed information the AC looks for during quality measurement, therefore it is less than accreditation. PUA provides a legal framework. All private universities are required to abide by the provisions, rules and regulations stipulated in the PUA.

Because UGC gets its legitimacy from PUA, approval of UGC adds to the image of the university. But this is does not grant accreditation. The UGC's approval facilitates standard setting and benchmarking only. The UGC supervises and monitors the degree of compliance by the universities to the conditions mandated by the PUA. This is basically a mechanism to ensure a minimum level of standard in terms of legal requirements. While measuring quality AC goes beyond legal requirements. It looks for an internally built-in mechanism that pushes continuously for improvement of quality and excellence at the university to be accredited.

The writer is a former Vice Chancellor, NSU.

E-mail: hafiz.siddiqi91@gmail.com

[shibli]

Growth and Contribution of Private Universities

Dr. Hafiz G. A. Siddiqi

Before 1993, the government had the monopoly of providing higher education primarily because nobody in Bangladesh would believe that private sector could provide high quality higher education. But over time things changed and private sector emerged as successful provider of higher education because the government could not cope with the rapidly increasing demand for higher education due to budgetary constraint. The government realized that without public-private partnership the demand for high quality higher education could not be met. Eventually government enacted the Private Universities Act 1992 to facilitate the establishment of private universities with the assumption that these universities would supplement the government efforts to meet the demand for higher education. Response from the private sector was encouraging. With the success of North South University, the first private university that started its operation in 1993, as many as 54 private universities as opposed to 31 public universities are now operating in Bangladesh. Most of the private universities including North South are non-Profit but market-driven and tuition-driven. They mainly offer only those degrees which they can sell in the market and charge tuition and fees that are sufficient to cover all the operating costs and capital expenditures. However, many universities have diversified their academic programs horizontally although non-linear diversification is not uncommon. Top universities including NSU offer attractive scholarships and financial assistance to attract good students and help the poor but meritorious students study at these universities. According to an estimate about 175000 students are now studying at private universities as opposed to 150000 at public universities. This phenomenal growth of private universities certainly, indicates the increasingly important role they play in imparting higher education in Bangladesh. Private universities are producing much needed highly skilled manpower for the country. Many of these graduates are employable both locally and internationally. Number of students going to foreign countries has decreased saving a huge amount of foreign exchange. They contribute substantially to national development. The importance of world class private universities will increase further in future. Without private universities national demand for higher education cannot be met. Both public and private universities must coexist to supplement and complement each other. A strong partnership is desirable. However, one must note that of the 54 universities only a small number including NSU provide world class education. None of them have fulfilled all the conditions of the Private Universities Act 1992 except NSU, which has constructed the 12,50,000 sft magnificent campus building at Bashundhara. Therefore, it is absolutely essential that the government/UGC apply an effective supervising and monitoring mechanism that will ensure acceptable quality of education imparted by all private universities. In addition, there must be a regulatory agency like an internationally recognized Accreditation Council for quality assurance.

(Dr. Hafiz G. A. Siddiqi, Vice Chancellor, North South University)