A new Private university ordinance is approved November 26, 2008
Posted by bdoza in BANGLADESH, EDUCATION, GOVERNANCE.Tags: CTG, private university ordinance, UGC
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The Advisory Council of the Caretaker Government has approved the Private University ordinance. It was long overdue. The first ordinance was promulgated in 1992. It was revised in 1998. Even after the second revision, there were loopholes in the ordinance which was utilized by the owners of the private universities and transformrd the sector into a profitable business rather than to be worthy supplement to the exiting public education.
The ordinary citizen had the opportunity to look closely into the affairs of a private university and observed how the sponsors exploited the weakness of the UGC and government in monitoring the affairs of the private universities to earn money for themselves in the name of serving education to the community.
It is reported that there are 51 private universities by now and only one has got the permanent certificate to run the university. Most of the other universities couldn’t fulfill the conditions set by the ordinance even after 5 years of temporary permission.
In the new ordinance , it is said that before getting permanent registration, no private university will open the outer campus, will not make any agreement with foreign universities and even will not provide any distant learning.
Expert said it is a weak ordinance. People who want to dodge the government, will able to do so and more rules and regulations will be required to make it effective.
After the Ministry of Education circulated it through gazette notification, the ministry will start the formulation of the regulations.
One of the important addition of the present ordinance is the required experience and qualification for the VC of the private universities. One must have 20 years teaching/administrative experience or 10 years teaching and 10 years administrative experience.
Many of the private universities have no respect for this academic post. Sometimes businessman or even politicians hold the post on the wish of the sponsors.
The ordinance also suggests modification in the Trustee Board which will include representative from the UGC, educationists and professionals. The Syndicate and Senate will be headed by the VC and he will be the chief executive and Academic officer.
The number of the regular teachers should be adequate and the number of temporary teachers must not be over 25% of the regular teachers.
There will also be provision for ‘accreditation council’ to improve the qualities of education and there will be indication for the ranking of the universities in the ordinance.
No new permission will be given to the upcoming universities till the ordinance is implemented.
As per latest statistics , the number of students in private universities is 1,24,267. [Source: Prothom Alo , 26 November 2008]
An ordinary citizen
Post script:
6 January, 2009
Government has promulgated the ‘Private University Ordinance-2008’ with effect from 30th December 2008.
The full ordinance is available at http://www.moedu.gov.bd
Private University Law to be promulgated in Bangladesh March 5, 2010
Posted by bdoza in BANGLADESH, EDUCATION, GOVERNANCE, University.Tags: private university law, private university ordinance
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AL Government is mulling to introduce a private university bill in the parliament to regulate the activities of the private universities and to ensure their healthy growth.
The ordinary citizen had also a little experience of working in a private university and had first-hand exposure to the attitude of the owners and irregularities in the acitivites of the private universities.
Due to lack of strong monitoring of the Private Universities, some make it a business in Bangladesh. You would get very few private universities who are maintaining requisite standard for a university but most of them are collecting exuberant fees.
Fisrt Private University ordinance was adopted in 1992. Then it was modified in 1998 with few changes. As rhe ordinance was not fulfilling the need of the changing time, a revision of the rules was long due. The past Caretaker Government also prepared a proposal but it didn’t promulgated into law.
The new government has prepared a draft law and will be soon placed in the Parliament to pass it as a law. The draft proposed to increase the power of the VC who should be a carrier academician with long 20 years of experience. The syndicate will have 10-12 members and there will one representative from the ministry and one from UGC in the syndicate.
As always, the President of the owners association of the private universities criticised the attempt of the govt to regulate the private universities by promulgating a new law.
We hope that the government will take necessary steps to make the private universities more people- oriented and contibuting positively to the society.
An ordinary citizen
Progress:
23/03/10
University ordinance falls in uncertainity
1973 University Ordinance: ‘was autonomy of the public universities wrong?’ September 9, 2007
Posted by bdoza in BANGLADESH, Dhaka University, EDUCATION, University.Tags: 1973 university ordinance, university autonomy
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Dr. Kamal Hussain, veteran lawyer and politician who was the Law Minister during 1973 when university ordinance of 1973 was promulgated asked the question whether the autonomy given to the university in 1973 ordinance was wrong in a round table discussion held recently in the capital.
Controversy arises as the teachers of the universities become more politicalised, they identify themselves with the colour and campaign for elections, they keep alignment with the political parties, give promotions and privileges to the teachers on political alignments, give classes and recruit the teachers with political bias. (more…)
Private universities, irregularities and UGC August 10, 2007
Posted by bdoza in BANGLADESH, EDUCATION, GOVERNANCE.Tags: Private universities, UGC, University
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Ministry of Education of Bangladesh on recommendation of UGC(University Grant Commission) is taking some steps to rectify the irregularities in the field of Private University education. They have already stopped 56 local centers of Foreign Universities and have taken decision to stop the 100 outer campuses of the universities.
With the promulgation of the Private University Act in 1992, private universities started to grow like kindergartens in our country. The organizers have taken the advantage of the loopholes of regulations in the Act. Though the Act was revised in 1998, but with no significant change. The growth of private universities blooms during both of the BNP regimes due to slackness of the regulatory bodies. They may also be credited for giving private universities a commercial entity.
Many industrialists as an individual or as a group started the private universities. They became chairman or members of the Board of Directors in the style of the companies or became members of the Syndicate to dictate the rules and regulations of the university. Earning profit became more important than imparting knowledge to this group of investors. Private universities grew in our country like that of Industry to earn money.
Despite many complaints and evidence of irregularities, the past political governments particularly the last BNP Government could not take any major steps due to political compromise and underhand negotiations.
The present Caretaker Government has given its attention to the private university after coming to the power. It is heard that private university act is under review.
We hope that the CG will
a) rectify and upgrade the private university act
b) strengthen the UGC to have complete hold on the universities including the private universities
c) will make the Accounts of the private transparent and
d)let the private universities grow as academic institutions, not as a private enterprise.
Bdoza
Post script:
Illegal private universities bid to attract admission seekers despite ban [DS]
APUB against Private University ordinance [DS]
3 private universities submitted rejoinder [DS]
UGC, public universities and 1973 ordinance June 3, 2007
Posted by bdoza in BANGLADESH, EDUCATION.Tags: UGC, University
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UGC (University Grant Commission) chairman Professor Najrul Islam said in an interview that 1973 university ordinance may be amended to discipline the university teaching(bdnews24.com).
The ordinary citizen has little expertise on the 1973 ordinance.
But what he cannot overlook is the fact that these public universities which are run by the exchequer of the Government are not fulfilling the expectation of the people.
Both the teachers and students are markedly politically divided.Both are engaged more in non-academic activities than academic exercise.
The courses are lagging behind their schedule. The curriculum is interrupted by many non-academic events.
The teachers are divided in colours. They are more busy to establish their political doctrine than to give lessons to the students.
A leader of the teachers finds no fault in doing politics himself and declaring it publicly but fell no shame in preventing a Nobel Laurette to come to the campus as the convocation speaker in a university where he himself was a student.
Teachers are more interested in taking classes in the private universities whereas classes are missed days together in his regular university. They also remain engaged in their private assignments during office hours.
A good amount of the energy of the teachers are also used to communicate with the student political wing.
Teachers are selected on the basis of political linkage rather than merit. Their promotions are also considered in the same way.
Many teachers are going abroad for higher studies and are not coming back in time though their service is remaining intact.
All these privileges they are enjoying in the name of autonomy and independence.
The ordinary citizen is not against the autonomy of these public universities but there must be a fine balance between responsibility, accountability and autonomy.
Bdoza
2008: with renewed hope for a new Bangladesh January 2, 2008
Posted by bdoza in BANGLADESH, GOVERNANCE.Tags: 2008, new Bangladesh
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With the end of 2007 almost a year of the Care taker Government is going to be over. The new Care Taker Government started its journey after1/11 on the background of disturbing political situation in Bangladesh with the pledge of a corruption free society and a free fair election.
The government imposed the emergency to calm the situation, restricted the political activities, arrested the political leaders, businessmen and beau crates on charge of corruption and at one stage the two ex-prime ministers were also arrested.
The government reformed the Anti-corruption Commission. Special court had been formed for the trial of corruption cases and so far judgments on many cases have been given.
The controversial commissioners of the Election Commission have been changed and new competent non controversial commissioners have been
posted. EC have been made more independent and process to separate the secretariat is under way. EC had taken steps to prepare a new voter list with photo and with parallel National ID cards.
The Public Service Commission is manned with new executives and measures had been taken to rectify its earlier wrong doings.
Judiciary had been separated from the Executive which is a time changing event for Bangladesh and which the past political governments failed to implement even after repeated commitment.
Formation of Truth Commission has been proposed to lessen the burden on the judiciary but it is not yet take its final shape.
Government formed the Regulatory Reform Commission which is working on simplifying the old regulations to make the business and services more dynamic and easy working.
Better Business Forum is formed with the business community to facilitate the business and investment in our country.
The services at Chittagong Port had been made dynamic and more hassle free which multiplied the income at the port.
National Board of revenue (NBR) had taken attempt to simplify the tax return system and collected the increased amount of revenue more than expected.
Ideas rose to free the universities from students’ and teachers’ politics. But mixed reactions came from different groups – a section of university teachers and political leaders didn’t like the idea.
Few university teachers were also arrested in relation to the violence in the university campus. RU teachers were released on mercy by the President of the country, but fate of arrested DU teachers are still hanging.
The government also tried to revise the University Ordinance of 1973, which is also not acclaimed by the academicians and not yet placed for approval.
The government also tried to discipline the private university education. The private university ordinance is under revision but the final form of the revision is yet to come.
Private medical education also came under government scrutiny and private universities are barred from affiliating the private medical colleges.
But no expected reform took place in the political parties. Rather some leaders are twisting their muscles to launch movement to free their leaders in the coming days. But there is still hope for reform through the regulation of the Election Commission once the registration of the political parties is started.
The country and the economy were devastated by two consecutive floods and a fierce hurricane, many thought would be difficult for the government to overcome. In all three cases the role of the political parties was minimal.
One of the exceptions of the present emergency rule is that the media was kept comparatively free from regulation though initially some restrictions were tried to be imposed by the government. But on the plea of the editors and journalists the government accepted their view point.
The major failure of the government was to control the prices of the essentials. Government has taken multiple measures but the price didn’t come down to the level of common people’ comfortable reach.
Investment, both local and foreign, was less than expected. Big business houses are not yet feeling encouraged investing though assurances and measures from the government. The mid level businessmen didn’t get the requisite support from our financial system.
The encouraging feature is the increasing amount of remittances that our expatriates sent last year which crosses 6 billion US$.
And the 3 day conferences of NRBs in the last days of the year projected the vision of a new Bangladesh with participation of the skilled NRBs in the different fields of our economy.
WE hope that in 2008, the programs that the CTG has initiated will be more consolidated, the prices of essential will be stable, investments will be improved, voter listing will be completed, a free and fair election will be held and an all accepted democratic government will be installed.
An ordinary citizen
Grameen Experience and Prospect of PPP in Bangladesh August 14, 2012
Posted by bdoza in BANGLADESH, ECONOMY.Tags: Grameen, PPP, Public Private Partnership, Yunus
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I was listening to a talk show in the midnight in one of TV channels. One of the experts of the program was a professor of a university. He was discussing the impact of experience of Grameen on the future of Private Public Partnership’ in Bangladesh.
Grameen Bank was institutionalized through an ordinance in 1983. Through this ordinance, Bangladesh Government has the privilege of having a percentage of share in the capital of Bank and also to appoint the chairman and to have 2 more members in the board of directors. Initially the government had a good share but at present it comes to 3% and the client shares is 97%.
Dr. Muhammad Yunus was its Managing Director since its inception till 2011 until he had to resign on the pressure of the government. During his stay in the helm of bank over the last 30 years, Dr. Yunus had transformed the bank into an internationally acclaimed institution that also brought Nobel Peace Prize Prize not only for him but also for Grameen Bank. Grameen bank has 8.3 million borrowers, 97% of whom are women, about 25 thousand employees, covered above 80,000 villages, distributed more than 11.5 billion US $ (approx. tk 700 billion), recovery rate is 95%.
Government has recently taken a move to change the Grameen Bank ordinance 1983 to empower the government selected-chairman to fix the managing director of his choice ignoring the elected members of the borrower-shareholders of the Grameen bank. Earlier the government also forced Dr. Muhammad Yunus to resign from his of Managing Director against the will of Board of Directors.
The move will create confusion in the minds of the willing partners of PPP of loosing their control on the joint enterprises with the Government.
An ordinary citzen
Bangladesh
Reflections 