Both public and private universities of the country have failed to find a satisfactory place in the international university rankings which experts say is an ominous pointer to falling
educational excellence of the institutions in recent years.
Not a single university of Bangladesh found a place among the top 500 institutions around the globe in the Academic Ranking of World Universities 2013, also known as the Shanghai Rankings, for three years in a row,
which was announced on August 15.
Shanghai Rankings was prepared by the Centre for World-Class Universities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, scrutinising more than 1200 universities every year and the best 500 universities were named.
ARWU adopts six objective indicators to rank world universities, including the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and fields medals, the number of highly cited researchers, the number of articles published in journals of nature and science, the number of articles indexed in Science Citation Index – Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index, and per capita performance.
The view of the educationalists is mirrored by the sharp decline in the excellence of Banladeshi universities in Quacquarelli Symonds rankings of universities around the world in which the position of Dhaka University – the country’s only university to got a place in the rankings – was 601+ in 2013.
The ranking of DU has fallen from 365th best university in 2005, between 550 and 600 in 2011 to 601+ best university in 2013.
DU ranked between 201 and 250 in 2013 from 151 and 200 in 2011 in QS Asian University rankings.
According to July 2013 edition of the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities, which take into account the number of electronic publications relating to the university on the internet, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology ranked 2666th, Rajshahi University 3999th, Jahangirnagar University 4165th and Dhaka University ranked 5201st.
In the Webometrics Ranking of Asia Pacific Universities, no Bangladeshi university found a place among the top 300. Among the top 100 South Asian universities, Dhaka University was placed 43rd and BUET 52nd.
Substandard research work and publications, poor library and laboratory facilities, lack of motivation and interest among teachers and students and a politicised teacher recruitment process has led to the situation, the educationalist said.
Former University Grants Commission chairmen Nazrul Islam said quality of education in the universities had not improved in comparison with foreign universities.
He observed that the lack of quality research and small number of quality journals published by the universities coupled with politicised teacher recruitment was largely responsible for the dismal situation.
Many universities lack good governance, are always in unrest which causes hindrance to academic activities, he said.
‘Most of the vice-chancellors of the universities remain busy in safeguarding their power so they do not have time to oversee the other things…,’ Nazrul said.
The absence of posting details, including research and publications, journals on the website was one of the reasons for the country’s universities’ not finding a place in the international rankings, as many rankings are based on website or collects information from websites, said BUET vice-chancellor Nazrul Islam.
He said that in terms of quality and efficiency, BUET graduates attained international standards.
UGC chairman AK Azad Chowdhury, also former DU vice-chancellor, said quality of education in the universities was improving but ‘foreign universities’ were progressing faster making it difficult for Bangladeshi universities to keep pace with them,’ he said.
Azad Chowdhury said the country’s universities did not post all their details on the website. If they had done it, at least three or four universities of the country would have found a respectable place in the rankings.
The educationists said that budgetary allocation for higher education was less than what was required which constrained research and other activities of the universities.
Universities should make research visible and digitise publications as soon as possible, he added.
There are 34 public and 71 private universities in Bangladesh enrolling about 24 lakh students.
-With New Age input
