Recently the apex body of all the affiliated public, private and international universities of Bangladesh, University Grants Commission (UGC) has ordered all public universities to shut their evening courses.
The directive came at the heels of President M Abdul Hamid condemning public universities of running evening courses and turning it into a lucrative business. UGC went on to say that such evening courses are tarnishing the image of educational institutions.
The public universities are carrying out these courses without taking prior permission and they are continually opening new departments, programmes and institutes and enrolling students and conducting academic activities. The university authorities are becoming quite reckless when it comes to following the proper rules and regulations set by the governing body.
President M Abdul Hamid criticized evening courses in public universities, saying that a section of teachers had turned universities into business institutions and are disrupting its overall academic environment. He further said that public universities are turned into private universities at night and it is harmful for the overall reputation of the institutions.
The universities are benefitting financially from
these courses and are therefore disregarding the
adverse effect that this is having on the
overall learning environment
The evening courses at public universities are more expensive than even private university courses, however, they are of significantly lower quality. As a result, even though students are paying large sums for these diplomas, their degrees do not have the same merit as the other courses offered at public universities. This puts the students at an unfair disadvantage in their career, as well as, academic life.
The universities are benefitting financially from these courses and are therefore disregarding the adverse effect that this is having on the overall learning environment. The evening courses that public universities introduced to generate own income appear to be irrelevant and contradictory to the basic principles underlying the concept of public university.
Therefore, UGC’s directive on the issue is a timely one indeed and will hopefully spur public universities to stop their evening courses and help improve the falling quality of education on their campuses.
