A university in name only? The seven colleges controversy

What is happening with the seven colleges is both unexpected and deeply concerning. Three main groups are now at play: Honours and Master's students, BCS Education Cadre officers, and Higher Secondary (HSC) students. Initially, when Honours and Master's students began campaigning for a separate university to be created from the seven colleges, the other two groups stayed silent. Now, as soon as the government has announced its plan to form a new university around these seven colleges, both the HSC students and BCS Education Cadre officers have begun protesting.

The HSC students' demand is clear: whatever reforms are undertaken, the distinctive heritage and character of the HSC programmes at these historic colleges must be preserved. The BCS Education Cadre officers, meanwhile, are worried about their own future. They had been posted in these seven colleges under Dhaka University and were thus able to live and work in Dhaka. With the creation of a new university, the status of 1,400 such officers is now uncertain. Adding to the confusion, student admission has already begun at the newly declared "Dhaka Central University" without any clear decision about who will be teaching, who will be appointed, or how the administration will be structured.

Is it really that easy to form a university? Can a protest automatically trigger the creation of a new institution, with demands quickly accepted simply to calm the situation? Universities—especially when formed from seven long-standing and distinct colleges—require careful planning and many parameters to be considered. History offers lessons here. The founding of Dhaka University was not an overnight affair; it was the result of years of negotiations, demands, meetings, and decisions. The greater the importance of an institution, the more intense its "labour pains" will be. Universities are meant to be enduring institutions—by nature their birth must be deliberate and painstaking.

One option could be to preserve the heritage of each college by running their HSC programmes under separate and dedicated administrations. A portion of each campus could be reserved exclusively for HSC programmes, but a single institution cannot simultaneously operate as both a college and a full-fledged university, especially under one administration.

We must also recognise an important global reality: in most developed countries, higher secondary education and universities function as two clearly distinct entities, operating under separate administrations and on separate campuses. Exceptions do exist, but they are rare. South Asia—along with a handful of institutions in North America—still preserves a colonial-era model in which colleges combine higher secondary and undergraduate programmes under a single administrative structure, often with overlapping teaching staff. Bangladesh remains one of the most prominent examples of this hybrid system.

Yet instead of being a model for others to emulate, Bangladesh struggles with chronic deficiencies in educational quality. This is not merely a question of resources but of systemic design and governance. Other South Asian institutions illustrate the persistence of this model: Fergusson College in Pune, India, and Government College University in Lahore, Pakistan, are both cases where thousands of students transition seamlessly from higher secondary to undergraduate programmes. These structures hark back to the colonial era, when colleges were conceived as bridges between schools and universities—a legacy that still shapes our education systems today.

In the West, by contrast, this model is virtually non-existent. The United States does have "early college" programmes—such as Bard High School Early College in New York and Baltimore—where high school students can simultaneously earn two years of college credit. In the American system, the first two years of an undergraduate programme can sometimes be completed in such programmes, after which students transfer their credits to another institution to finish their degree. This model ensures continuity, lowers costs, and allows access to qualified teachers. Critics, however, point out the challenges of teaching mixed-age groups and managing different academic levels simultaneously. For this reason, the dominant model in most advanced countries is clear: high schools finish at the higher secondary level, and universities (or colleges) run undergraduate and postgraduate programmes separately with a distinct recruitment process for faculty.

It is also worth noting that the early-college model is fundamentally exceptional. In the United States, the reason it works is that most teachers in such programmes hold at least a Master's degree, enabling them to teach the equivalent of the first two years of undergraduate study. This saves students considerable expense—crucial in a country where higher education is extremely costly, funded either by high tuition fees or by taxpayers' money. Europe, for example, has higher taxes but lower tuition fees for its citizens, while non-Europeans must pay significantly more. In these hybrid models, the last two years of an undergraduate degree are more advanced and thus require more highly qualified faculty.

The founding of Dhaka University was not an overnight affair; it was the result of years of negotiations, demands, meetings, and decisions. The greater the importance of an institution, the more intense its "labour pains" will be. Universities are meant to be enduring institutions—by nature their birth must be deliberate and painstaking.

So, what can be done about the seven colleges? There is no quick fix, but a thoughtful solution must be found. One option could be to preserve the heritage of each college by running their HSC programmes under separate and dedicated administrations. A portion of each campus could be reserved exclusively for HSC programmes, but a single institution cannot simultaneously operate as both a college and a full-fledged university, especially under one administration. Separating the HSC programmes first and then creating a collegiate university model from the seven colleges might be the best approach. This would also require scaling admissions sensibly: these colleges can no longer admit 20,000–30,000 students each as they did before.

Quality must take precedence over quantity. If the new university is to offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, it must recruit large numbers of PhD-holding faculty as quickly as possible. Existing BCS Education Cadre officers who already hold doctoral degrees could be given priority for these posts. When the Central University was announced, the administration should have simultaneously launched a drive to recruit highly qualified faculty to signal the government's commitment to raising academic standards.

Ultimately, calling an institution a "college" or a "university" means little if teaching quality does not improve. It is the calibre of teachers that matters most. High-quality teachers produce high-quality students, and high-quality students elevate the standing of the institution itself.

Dr Kamrul Hassan Mamun is a professor in the Department of Physics at Dhaka University. He can be reached at khassan@du.ac.bd.

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