Higher education quality improvement in Bangladesh

Abstract

There have been ongoing initiatives by all stakeholders of the higher education system of Bangladesh to improve the quality of education by developing a unified standard among all higher education institutions. To date, these efforts and initiatives have been largely unsuccessful due to a lack of understanding of the current state of education quality. Unfortunately, the problems are gradually magnifying as new private universities are evolving without any infrastructure, government regulation, or accreditation bodies. Three years ago, a large project financed by the government and the World Bank was initiated to enhance quality with a number of sub-projects. This paper identifies the root causes of the challenges faced by the higher education system as well as explains how these challenges can be addressed effectively. A recent visit to Bangladesh as a consultant to improve the quality of higher education revealed the higher education system requires a major overhaul. Not only is there no pedagogical research or training available to faculty but faculty motivation is also low. The higher education system employs rote memorization approach rather than critical thinking by students. With significant political and economic pressure, the current, non-transparent system must be changed before any reasonable improvements can be made. Information presented in this paper will be valuable for other developing countries as well since they may face similar issues in their own higher education systems. © 2012 American Society for Engineering Education.