Relaxation to allow more univs to meet criteria

AMENDED PVT UNIV ACT
Relaxation to allow more univs to meet criteria
Only one private university could meet all the requirements for the permanent approval during 18 years of private university operation and two more university can now meet the requirements because of some relaxation in the amended private university act, reports NewAge.
Earlier a university needed to have a permanent campus on at least five acres of land five years inside temporary approval but the amended act reduced the area of the campus to one acre in Dhaka and Chittagong and to two acres elsewhere. The amended law also extended the timeframe to seven years.
The government in 1992 allowed establishment of private universities with the Private University Act and since then universities have been mushrooming on temporary approval but almost none of them bothered to meet the criteria for permanent approval.
The University Grants Commission chairman, M Nazrul Islam, on Monday said only one of the 54 private universities could meet all the requirements for the permanent approval and a few more were in the pipeline taking the scope of relaxed measures as laid out in the Private University Act 2010 passed on Sunday
‘We monitor the activities of the universities and we have found 8 to 10 of them try to go by the rules but most of them have failed to set up their own permanent campus on five acres of land,’ he said.
‘After many arguments, we have finally decided that private universities in Dhaka and Chittagong will need to have a campus one acre of land. We think the decision will pavey the way for a few more universities to apply for the permanent approval as their campuses were on three to four acres of land,’ he said.
The commission chairman said they were also monitoring other requirements the private universities needed to fulfil.
Most of the universities were earlier run by part-time teachers but now no university having more than 30 per cent part-time faculty would get the permanent approval, he said. ‘Now better universities have reduced the number of part-time teachers. Some of them now have only 20 per cent of the teachers working part time.’
‘The commission is more concerned about ensuring the quality of education in the universities alongside the infrastructure. We also proposed the formation of an independent accreditation council,’ he said.
‘As the parliament accepted the accreditation council in the new act, now the universities will be forced to concentrate on ensuring quality to keep their grades up,’ he said. ‘It is a major development in Bangladesh’s education.’
The chairman differed with criticism of the new law that it has reduced the commission’s regulatory authorities. ‘Many were critical of the scrapping of a provision in the law to set tuition fees and salaries of the staff by the commission. It was the cabinet’s suggestion and the standing committee on the education ministry dropped the provision during scrutiny. I think setting fees is not the commission’s job and it will not be a wise idea.’
‘The important thing is the formation of the syndicate and setting criteria for the appointment of vice-chancellor, pro-vice-chancellor and treasurer. Now there will be representation of the commission and the government in the syndicates and they can issue note of dissent if they disagree with the management.’
The new act also brought the local branches of foreign universities under a legal framework and monitoring, he said. ‘Now the few institutions accused of trading in certificates could be monitored and action could be taken against them.’
The parliament passed the Private University Bill 2010 which was placed on March 9 by the education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid.
Then the law went to the parliamentary standing committee on the education ministry for scrutiny and the committee suggested that private universities should prepare a tuition fee structure in the light of the socioeconomic condition and inform the commission of the matter.

Courtesy of NewAge