Ranking of universities: Criteria for Bangladesh

Bangladesh's education and its institutions are not anywhere similar to American or British systems. It seems that most academics in Bangladesh's elite universities are educated in the US. Of course, they are well aware of the educational system abroad in their capacity as students and/or research fellows. It is easier to copy a system they know already. A majority of these academicians merely experienced the foreign academic systems as graduate and/or postgraduate students or post-doctoral fellows. Hence, they were not part of its operation, execution, or management of curricula or academic research. You may copy the syllabus of a foreign university for training, but the quality assurance of the programme is another story. The quality of the academic and research management requires consistent monitoring and evaluation continuously for years.

The systems of the Ivy League (US) or the Russell group of elite universities and colleges (UK) are not the systems that we should be looking at to assess the quality standard of Bangladesh's higher education system. Although we would like to compare ourselves with these systems, it's not practical.

However, there is some generic set of standards such as faculty-student ratio, retention rate of students, entry qualifications, and passing rate which are useful measures of an institution's quality. But we should be creative and innovative in developing criteria which are capable of measuring the quality with equity.

The Parliament of Bangladesh should carefully rectify and/or modify the policy prepared by UGC for monitoring quality assurance and control for universities and colleges in Bangladesh. The UGC should invest some resources in studying the ranking criteria. Several studies should be conducted laterally and diagonally for collection of data for final outcome measure. Listed below are some of the issues which may be useful in understanding the key aspects for ranking the universities based on quality and equity of training.

Reputation: Conduct a nationwide study on the students' perceptions and reality of higher education in Bangladesh.

Admissions policy: Some colleges may be offering places to students who are rejected by the elite colleges. This should not be seen as negative. What is important is that if these institutions have made any differences in students' lives, for example, in securing employment or engaging in self employment.

Transferable skills: What transferable skills students gain and how these are developed through the learning experiences.

Alumni: Not every alumnus would be able to make donations to universities; however, they do make some real contributions to society in general. Consider their contributions to commercial, social, and charitable engagements.

Entrepreneurial management: Both private and public sector institutions should be creating value for money. This needs to be seen in terms of return on investment from a student's point of view.

Faculty: Educational background of faculty members. Their vocational or professional experiences and faculty's links with other educational institutions and industry should be considered.

Research output: How many faculty members are active researchers, both in terms of academics and pedagogically.

Resources: Learning environment and resources should include library facility and other research tools. For example, a good science faculty should have relevant and recent textbooks, quality journals in the library, and online access to journals and periodicals. Investment in learning resources should be priority of the criteria.

Quality assurance: The quality of management, its mission, objectives and strategy to maintain and enhance the overall teaching, learning, and research environment.

Instrumentation and equipment for laboratories: Allocation of funds on a yearly basis for the equipment in the laboratories should be a requirement of the charter of the universities and colleges. The faculty should be encouraged to develop joint collaborative research projects with local industry and foreign universities for acquisition of instrumentation in the laboratories.

Exchange: Does the university have a plan for exchange of faculty and students with foreign universities? The reality is that in the pre-9/11 the American universities were open to these exchanges for training of post-doctoral fellows and postgraduate training. The new Department of Homeland Security regulations have a discouraging effect on Muslim students in America. However, transfer of technology through well trained and skilled personnel has had an effective impact on the socio-economic health of China, Korea, Singapore, and Japan. These countries benefited from the aggressive exchange programs. I was part of the training schemes at universities in Canada and the US. I personally approved these exchange programmes for training of scientists from Southeast and East Asian countries at the Banting Institute (seat of the discovery of insulin in 1923) at the University of Toronto in Canada and the Nuclear Sciences Institute at San Jose State University in the US. Thirty-some years later, you see the obvious results of these exchanges -- transfer of technology through human resources -- on their economies.

Institutional assessment and analysis report (IAAR): Each university should develop a mechanism for internal audit of programmes, management, service, quality assurance, and quality control. There are specific guidelines to develop equitable IAAR.

This programme is universally used by the accrediting agencies in the West, in our case it should be adopted by UGC. It eliminates the bureaucracy and determines the equitable quality assurance of the institution. It works both ways -- as an instrument for internal audit by the university and also as an external audit by UGC. I am available to offer the training to UGC representatives or executives for external audit and assessment of a university based on IAAR.

Professional development plan: Each faculty, executive, and employee of the university should be asked to write the professional development plan initially for one year and later for five years. There are specific guidelines to develop this professional plan. This should cover the extraordinary activities beyond the regular duties and the contractual obligations of the employee of the university. This will eliminate promotions based on seniority basis and create a positive competition among the employees. The peers will evaluate the progress mentioned in the PDP on a yearly basis and make recommendations to the administration for promotions. It certainly brings transparency in the system and pride to the employee for professional achievements. "Ask not what your university can do for you, ask what you can do for your university!" Does this quote sound familiar?

Student placement: It is one of the criteria that indicate the acceptance of trained graduates in the industry or foreign lands. Each university should develop and maintain the records of placements of graduates. The employers may be asked to assess the trained graduates for further improvement of the desired programme.

Who should take the responsibility of judging standards? The UGC should assume this responsibility. The initial research findings should identify the key aspects on which a set of standards of ranking applicability would become more visible.

A pilot test is necessary in Bangladesh to evaluate the consistency and validity of the scheme. A team of trained assessors should undertake this assessment exercise both in the Ministry of Education and at the UGC. Universities and colleges should be invited for their input.

I propose a country-wide conference to review the criteria items. Feedback, comments, and concerns from the conference should be taken into account. After all, we are talking about steering and operating the ship of academia and research for the bright future of Bangladesh. We should take immediate steps to alleviate any obstacles to education in both private and public sector universities and colleges.

Let us roll up our sleeves and get this programme going to ensure a bright future for Bangladesh. Let us make our national educational system a model for other nations in the region.

Prof. M.S. Ilyas Dhami is Acting Vice-Chancellor, State University of Bangladesh, Dhaka.