Private universities

By Md. Tauseef Anwar, BRAC University
23 May 2006, 18:00 PM
Spending almost two years in a private university in Dhaka, I ask this question today-- do private universities focus only on catering to the needs of the private sector of Bangladesh, or do they play a major part in contributing to the education sector as a whole?

Obviously, there is a huge amount of investment being made on students in private universities, which corresponds with the fact that they are considerably more expensive than public universities. The question is, are the students graduating with a pre-fixed mentality of joining a multinational firm (which is not bad of course)? Or do their career goals include government jobs?

The role of the government is also in question. Assuming that the recruiting

system is clean, do they really promote job opportunities for private

university students? Students demand a high salary (as return to the huge

investment their parents made) and, MNCs and private firms are ready to pay such a large price for these talented individuals. Is the government ready

to recognise the talent and pay the price?

MNCs on the other hand are very demanding, and many fall out. Is the government providing opportunities for them, and finally, back to the first question -- are the private universities grooming individuals to take up the responsibility of government jobs?