The ails and ills of the National University

I remember the time when I was getting enrolled at National University back in 2019. This is common knowledge: not all the students who were aspiring to get into public universities across the country could get into one. I was one of those who couldn't. 

My odyssey was even more complicated by the fact that I was a second-timer, meaning I had done my HSC in 2018. I was up for a turbulent time studying at Govt. BM College and was quite certain that I wouldn't be offered much in academic amenities. But I wasn't quite sure how much worse it would turn out to be. 

Here's what happened. 

While the world is observing 2023, our annual exams (we don't do semesters here, sorry) require us to write in yesteryear on exam papers. No wonder the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), in a survey in 2021, found that 66% of the students who passed out from the affiliated colleges of the National University are unemployed.

This brings me to another interesting yet grim story. While those enrolled in the session 2019–20 should ideally and theoretically be in their early or mid-fourth years, I, along with all the students of the aforementioned session of the National University, remain stuck, having just finished their second year and awaiting the results to get started for their third year. 

Furthermore, I was denied the chance to study and give exams in the English version, though I was verbally given a nod to writing in English (which I continue to do) as the questions to each of the courses come in both versions. When asked for the booklist for the English version, the authorities concerned couldn't provide one but rather asked me to switch to the Bangla version and tried to persuade me that reading and writing in Bangla is a lot easier and more efficient.

It pains me immensely that while all the public and private universities out there are conducting research that is of global standards and making strides in different aspects of education, our National University even fails to carry out presentations. 

The syllabus is merely an ancient manuscript written in the darkest of times. Whoever is in charge of the curriculum must have been living under a rock; otherwise, who would believe that the largest university in Bangladesh in terms of annual student intake would teach students about the budget for Fiscal Year 2013 in the year 2022?

And the syllabus is merely an ancient manuscript written in the darkest of times. Whoever is in charge of the curriculum must have been living under a rock; otherwise, who would believe that the largest university in Bangladesh in terms of annual student intake would teach students about the budget for Fiscal Year 2013 in the year 2022?

The university produces poor-quality research as well. The University Grants Commission's (UGC) latest annual report on 2022 found that only Tk5 crore was allocated for research in 2021. However, it is not known whether any research was done in that year. This is because they could not get any publications out. 

The university's overall academic status has suffered as a result of its recent inability to conduct competent research. The university cannot meet the needs of a world that is changing quickly and where new inventions and technologies are continuously being developed. 

Additionally, it implies that students are not receiving the exposure necessary for developing their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. How would they do it if the materials that are given to the students are out of date and do not represent the most recent business trends? 

One should find it unfathomable that as a student of finance and banking, I do not get to study any industry trends, analyses, or case studies. Why offer students a BBA degree when you can't even offer to include Mobile Financial Services (MFS) in the coursebooks? 

Not kidding, our coursebooks' information stopped at the onset of the emergence of e-commerce and the Internet of Things (IoT). These features are further consolidated when considering that in 2021, per-student expenditure in colleges under the National University was only Tk 743. But in other public universities, the cost per student is much higher. 

For example, the annual expenditure per student at Dhaka University was Tk 1,85,124 in 2021. In the same year, the expenditure per student at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) was Tk 2,98,660. And in the case of Barishal University, it was Tk 44,000.

On top of all these ill-suited endeavours of the National University, there remains a grossly inadequate feature, study and talk about its performance and efficacy in public discourses. The heavyweight media is reluctant to cover stories pertaining to the university and its mushroomed colleges. Why would they, though, as the policymakers at the helm themselves are also turning a blind eye to the issues plaguing the quality of the institutions?

The situation is made worse by the cluster of colleges affiliated with the National University. Due to the enormous number of students enrolled at the university and its affiliated institutions, the authorities struggle to control the state of affairs, which causes session jams and numerous other irregularities. 

Also, the state of education and other defining statistics are scarce enough to spur attention, as only a few opt to do research on how and what the National University is doing to improve its existence.

Another worthwhile mention would be to let the readers know that a lot of the teachers, not all, of course, appointed at the National University encourage students to write in large font sizes or by measuring in "bighas" with the fingers widespread. Which, according to their bizarre theory, will make the answers seem big and full of facts. 

I can write a thousand pages (metaphorically) about the ills and cons of the very institution I belong to, but I surmise here a couple of worrying trends happening at the National University.

First, an economics teacher at a college in Dhaka under the National University told Prothom Alo that 200 to 300 or more students are admitted in each class for graduation (honours) in big colleges. But no college has enough classrooms to teach so many students together.

Second, a World Bank study has found as high as 46% of National University students remain unemployed for at least three years upon completion of their graduation. Of those unemployed, the highest 74% are from the humanities group, followed by 69% from business discipline and 66% from the science group.

I end this piece by asking a simple question: who'll look after and be responsible for this mammoth figure of 2.9 million students studying in more than 2,283 affiliated colleges of the university? When will they graduate? Will the status quo ever change? And why offer "higher education" if it is incapable of meeting the standards demanded?

Muhammad Zayed Hossen Jubayer is a third-year honours student majoring in Finance and Banking at Govt. BM College, Barishal.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.