PhDs in private universities: A welcome step that needs rigorous oversight

Bangladesh has a large student population, many of whom apply for PhDs abroad due to little or no research opportunities at home, and limited PhD funding in public universities. Photo: Bloomberg

Every year, especially during the summer break - after having finished my PhD examination reports for vivas and marking my student papers - I get a flurry of emails for opportunities to join the Centre for Precision Health and Translational Medicine at University of Brighton and its research team. 

The emails, usually always poorly written - too long to be a TikTok sensation or video, and with spelling mistakes - seek help to get out of limited educational opportunities in their home countries. 

They want to see the cutting edge research that we do in AI, discover new biological systems, make new drugs for heart diseases, for cancer, make new discoveries for patient care, make new medical devices, and move and explore in the area of precision medicine. 

The emails often end with, "Oh, I forgot, I do not have any funding, so can you pay for me?" I often open the CVs and wonder why someone is applying for positions here, when they do not understand what sort of research we do. 

After sifting through a few hundred of these, I usually go for lunch. This process seems simple to me, but I, like so many in privileged positions in academia, forget the effort that a student, who is often desperate to gain more skills and opportunities, puts in, in trying to make themselves more employable and quench their thirst for knowledge.

Therefore, the recent news that Bangladesh's Ministry of Education has instructed the University  Grants Commission to draw up plans to allow — for the first time — private universities in Bangladesh to offer PhD programmes seems, somewhat long overdue and praise-worthy. 

Currently, there are limited PhD opportunities in public universities of Bangladesh and  the numbers registered for PhDs there have been dwindling, from 474 in 2016 to 353 in 2021.  

Even the opportunities offered are often questionable, especially in terms of how much value they really add to the local economy and to the individual, given the often hierarchical mindset inside these institutions. Hence, most of those who can, travel abroad for PhD training. 

Therefore, this step to allow PhD programmes in the private sector in higher education will be interesting and potentially transformative if done right, to enable the necessary skills, leadership and mind power to take the nation to the next step — a fully developed country. 

Yet, the process of opening up the private sector to the ability of awarding PhDs also requires a  bit of thought.

The PhD or Doctorate degree, as it is called, is the highest degree any university globally is able to give to students. Besides making you think you too have the title of Doctor (Dr) - even if you are not a medical doctor - it highlights one's specialism in a defined area of research. 

In my area of science, technology and medicine, for example, I undertook my medical degree and medical training, and then did a PhD in the biological sciences at the University of Cambridge, before moving to MIT. So technically, I can put "Dr Dr" before my name. A PhD is a means to starting an academic and research career and end up as professor.

So the real issue here is: How do we ensure effective regulation and assessment of the standard of the PhDs being awarded in this new sector? Technically, as is the case now, PhDs undergo, or should undergo, a rigorous internal governance under PhD training committees, wherein each institution monitors progress and reports to university senior leadership on the progress. 

In addition, there are external examiners and advisors from other universities reviewing the process. However, there should, in the early days of implementation at a national level, be direct oversight and input from the education ministry, through a subcommittee on higher education, to maintain the rigour and assessment of the standards of training of a PhD student. 

Therein also lies the processes of helping the student - independent means to make sure the student-supervisor etiquettes and processes are healthy, and allow for independent thought to be explored by the student. 

Furthermore, there remains the less talked about issue of improving the competency level of many experienced academics who have supervised undergraduate and masters, but have never actually supervised a PhD student. They will need active training and educational input from the private institutions. You are never too old to learn.

I believe this should also create healthy competition internally between the public and private sector, in providing the most effective, challenging and rewarding PhD. To date, public institutions in Bangladesh have had local clout, but failed to translate that reputation in the global ranking stage. 

It is rather private universities who have led the way in reforms, to improve not just access, but also potentially more real-world-ready teaching and learning opportunities. Science and technology universities obviously have the advantage for better industry sponsorship here, but often, these short sighted sponsorships are from foreign MNC-based interests and so the intellectual property (IP), which is currency for tech companies, is taken out of the country and for cheap. 

So how do we move towards providing the necessary skills for the next national tech, science and educational workforce, to lead the industries one would want, to improve foreign currency exports with?

Well, you have to get a mind shift in local economies or businesses to invest in research and development. Currently, low-level businesses are successful using a pure "we sell cheaper than others" playbook, providing good customer service and probably being more  responsive. However, that does not cut it in the higher margins and more profitable life science, tech and biotech sectors. 

To have long-term growth and sustainability, these businesses have to invest to not just play catchup, but also try to find new avenues for their competitive advantage to continue. Given the global export market, just being cheaper today does not guarantee that you will be cheaper tomorrow, especially as currencies become stronger and there are better labour laws to support low paid workers. 

Also the nature of research is not that all things will work, and so that process of learning that appreciates failure as an active process, should be appreciated by businesses. 

These are not transactional business processes where one can guarantee profitable output. This often puts off SMEs and more successful companies. Yet, the potential to have truly transformational assets by means of a strong IP portfolio will be necessary, if one wants to be a startup posting on Instagram, or to be something to shout about on LinkedIn.

PhDs are not just letters; they are the gateways to creating a culture of research and development within the university sector, private or public. Yet, often, due to local demand and more nefariously, shrewd business leaders looking to enter the lucrative education sector, the simple doctrines of profiteering has led to private universities sprouting up in Bangladesh. This has led to currently double the number of private to public institutions in Bangladesh. 

The private sector was always going to be necessary to support the demand. However, some of the stagnation and unimaginative courses and delivery and attainment has been due to a lacklustre senior leadership team, who are often more concerned with which table is designated for the vice chancellor, and which are for the academic staff, to create a hierarchy of false superiority. 

Harsh, I know, but it is clear there needs to be a more dynamic change in the leadership of many public universities in Bangladesh, where the leaders now often run their kingdoms like an authoritarian state leader, than an academic in a transparent and free-thinking egalitarian society. I am  dreaming, I know, but unless we do away with pen-pushing, administration-laden Jurassic senior leaders in the university system, the future does not look good.

Though there are sound arguments on the potential educational inequalities that exist in private universities - wherein those who pay get the most - as long as the standard of degree outputs and training is of a high standard, with correct governmental safeguards, the sector has immense potential to be transformative. 

Nations like Bangladesh have a large student population, many of whom apply for PhDs abroad due to little or no research opportunities at home, and limited PhD funding in public universities. 

Having previously lacked the ability to use the private sector, to get the best of both worlds of skills without breaking the bank and supporting the national need for brainpower, it now seems rational from an individual perspective to stay back. 

New guidelines to open the market will help now, but without a top-down policy on regulation of postgraduate training, effective teaching, training staff (many of whom may have done their PhDs abroad, but have not maintained training on how to supervise PhDs) and providing support to build the funding for such research and development sector with industry means, it may prove detrimental for bright students. 

I believe that oversight and regulation is needed for countries that are economically moving at a similar pace to Bangladesh, and there need to be better methods to creating an ecosystem for postgraduate research and in particular, translational research; and independent recruitment of the international academic leadership.

In doing so, this could lead to the creation of a future workforce of highly skilled, real-world-ready members of society, who will be ready and willing to support the country's development. That is the plan at least.

Sketch: TBS

Rameen Shakur, MD, PhD (Cantab), FRSA, FIBMS, FRSPH, FRSB is a professor of Genomics and Cardiovascular Medicine and Director of the Centre for Precision Health and Translational Medicine at University of Brighton, UK.

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.