Can academia fulfil our aspirations?
Dr. Saad Andaleeb's article on above subject (DS: 30/05/04) rings alarm bell on our national conscience. Mr. Z. Islam in the letters column (DS: 4/06/04) emphasised on research and publications by teachers. Just to check the validity of Dr. Andaleeb's and Mr. Islam's arguments, I tried to compare the information available in the BUET's Annual Report 2000-2001 to which I had an accidental access, and was dumb founded to see the crude reality. According to the report there were 457 teachers in 2000-2001 who together published only 249 (pseudo research?) papers during that period. Not even a full publication on an average per teacher over a year? Report shows that a few teachers in fact conduct researches and publish which in turn improves the overall statistics. If the non-UG-degree awarding departments like Physics, Chemistry and mathematics are left out from this statistics than the picture is simply pathetic. Civil Engineering department, the largest one with most PhDs (signifying more scope of research in the area) published least, speaks of the priorities of our teachers. I am sure other universities are not any better. So far as I know university teachers are the best paid in the country. Is this what they pay in return for the tax payers' money? In the words of Mr. Islam, "one or two reviewed research publications per year by a teacher is not a big asking from a person whose job is to study and teach" thereby improving his own quality to contribute and fulfil bare minimum of national aspiration from academia.
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