In defence of National University

June 29, 2009

THE suggestion to close down the National University (NU), as the affiliating university for the colleges in the country, is totally unjustifiable. Also the related suggestion aiming at restoring the colleges to the affiliating jurisdiction of the public universities, as was the practice until 1992, is equally devoid of logic. It is so for the simple reason that the public universities, overburdened with teaching and other responsibilities, can not do justice to the affiliated colleges.

There were two objectives behind the establishment of National University: reducing session jam and enhancing the quality of education. The university has been able to achieve the first goal. The second goal is yet to be achieved.

The National University in some cases successfully ended the vicious cycle of session jam. How can one forget that it took that public universities about nine years to complete the honours’ and masters’ courses, which should have been completed in four years.

Moreover, National University is financially self-sufficient. It has more earnings than any other public sector educational institution in Bangladesh.

Some critics say that the NU has totally failed to enhance the quality of education for which its students do not qualify for the job market. But what are the real reasons for such a state of affairs? One has to know the reasons before making any public comments. The first reason behind the failure of the NU is that it gets only poor quality students. The students who opt for the NU do so after they fail to get admission into the institutions, which take the best.

The next problem is the lack of infrastructure of the NU. There is a gulf of difference between the public universities and the colleges affiliated to the NU when it comes to infrastructure for imparting quality education.

A strong argument in favour of abolishing the NU to send the affiliated colleges and institutions back to the fold of the local public universities, is that it is a good model followed in the developed countries. The critics think that bringing the colleges back under the control of the public universities could create new opportunities to address the problem of quality of education.

But it would not be so easy to place the colleges again under the public universities that are already overburdened with so many tasks of their own. Moreover, there is no guarantee that restoring the old system would lead to automatic improvement in the quality of education in the affiliated colleges. A serious drawback with the old system was that any untoward incident such as strike and suspension of classes in a public university affected the affiliated colleges as well.

In fact, if the needed infrastructures, such as practical amenities for technical education are improved and teaching staff are increased, there can be improvement in the performance of the colleges. An effective and supportive policy is needed to improve the standard of education in the colleges. There is no reason to cut the head to get rid of one’s headache. There are better ways to cure the headache. Closing down the national university would be comparable to cutting the head for the case of headache.

Shamim Ahsan, is Associate Professor, Department of English, Dhaka Commerce College, and Md Jahurul Islam is Lecturer, Department of English, University of Comilla.

In defence of National University

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