Higher education in the country's private universities has become risky because of corruption and irregularities at every stage of the educational system, according to a study of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB).
Findings of a study titled "Private University's challenge of good governance and ways to overcome" were revealed at the Brac Centre Inn in the capital Monday where the researchers cited existence of kickbacks in getting approval for operation until distribution of certificates.
Director of the TIB (Research and Policy) Mohammad Rafique Hassan and Deputy Programme Manager Neena Shamsun Nahar jointly presented the report of the study, which was conducted on the basis of the information gathered from 22 selective private universities from 2012 to 2014.
Around Tk 10 million to Tk 30 million was being charged for the approval of a university, Tk 50,000 to Tk 0.3 million was being charged to provide fake certificates while Tk 50,000 to Tk 0.1 million was being charged for audit report, the report stated.
It said a university has to pay between Tk 50,000 and Tk 0.1 million to inspectors after establishment of the university, Tk 10,000 to Tk 50,000 is paid for dismissal of any objection from the inspectors.
A bribe of Tk 10,000 to Tk 30,000 is needed for getting approval for a faculty while Tk 10,000 to Tk 20,000 for a department, the survey found.
The surveyors also learnt that the universities provide false certificates in exchange of Tk 30,000 to Tk 0.3 million and the trusty boards of the most universities interfere in the decisions of the board of directors.
Presenting the report findings, Director of the TIB (Research and Policy) Mohammad Rafique Hassan said the chapter of private university opened in Bangladesh in 1992 and the number now stands at 79 because of the growing gap between demand and supply for spaces in public universities (The full report in Bangla is available here, বেসরকারি বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়).
He said a total of 56 universities are located in Dhaka division followed by Chittagong 11, Sylhet 8, Rajshahi 5, Khulna 2 and Barisal 1 while there is no private university in Rangpur division.
According to the study report, nearly 30 per cent of the universities are owned by the businessmen, 22.5 per cent by educationists, 8.5 per cent by politicians, 7.0 per cent by doctors and 5.6 per cent by businessmen-cum-politicians.
"Although the number of private universities has gone up significantly over the years, there is no move to increase funds, manpower and other logistic support to oversee their activities, leading to the situation," he said.
The surveyors said the private universities have fixed tuition fees at their sweet will without following the instruction of UGC. The lowest tuition fee was found at Tk 250,000 for BBA course while the highest rate was Tk 550,000.
"Per capita expenditure for students varies from at least Tk 9358 to Tk 543609. There is a huge difference of Tk 534251," Deputy Programme Manager Neena Shamsun Nahar said.
TIB Executive Director Iftekhar Uz-Zaman said private universities were supposed to be non-profit organisations but some of the owners of these universities have the tendency of making those profitable entities.
"The most striking thing is that higher education has become a commercial product now as entrepreneurs give most focus on profit-making then quality education," he said.
He said the corruption and financial irregularities are continuing unabated because of a tri-party alliance involving a section of officials of the ministries concerned, university grants commission (UGC) and the universities.
"These financial irregularities are depriving the students of proper education and turning the private universities into commercial organisations," he said.
TIB has made a 16-point recommendation, including closure of all outer campuses of private universities, formation of an accreditation council, creating a complete policy framework to implement the relevant laws and increasing manpower and financial capability of the UGC, to bring the educational system under transparency and accountability.
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