The Education Minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury urged public universities to assume the responsibility of academic monitoring by affiliating with government colleges in their respective districts.
In a recent meeting with the Bangladesh University Council, an organization of vice-chancellors of public universities, held at the International Mother Language Institute auditorium in the capital on Monday, the minister said he is taking strides to implement the decade-old instructions given by the Prime Minister.
Nearly a decade ago, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina spearheaded an initiative directing public universities to undertake the responsibility of academic monitoring by affiliating with government colleges nationwide.
Despite the successful affiliation of seven government colleges in the capital, Dhaka, by Dhaka University, other public universities have yet to follow suit. Consequently, government colleges continue to operate under the affiliation of the National University, with the directive given in 2014 from the head of government remaining unimplemented.
The education minister emphasized that the quality of education in the seven government colleges affiliated with Dhaka University has significantly improved since 2014. He called upon vice-chancellors to implement the Prime Minister's directives and suggestions, highlighting the success story of Dhaka University's academic standard monitoring. During the meeting, the
education minister pointed out the Open University's role in nationwide academic monitoring of non-formal education, questioning why other universities, like Chittagong University, couldn't adopt a similar approach for government colleges in their districts.
He noted that such monitoring was a practice until 1992 and stressed the need for an increased system capacity.
Referring to the challenges faced during the affiliation of seven colleges with Dhaka University, the minister emphasized the successful overcoming of obstacles. He encouraged other universities to emulate Dhaka University's effective academic monitoring and assured that the ministry would amend relevant laws if necessary.
Focusing on district-level universities, the Education Minister emphasized the importance of these institutions in undertaking academic monitoring responsibilities for government colleges in their respective districts.
Furthermore, he advised vice-chancellors against initiating undergraduate courses in new universities and instead urged them to concentrate on monitoring existing government college undergraduate courses.
The minister suggested that new universities focus on establishing a full setup and resource development before venturing into undergraduate programs, acknowledging the challenges associated with new beginnings.
