‘The infrastructure at DU developed but the curriculum did not’ 

TBS: How has DU changed from the time you were there to what it is now?

Dr Mustafizur Rahman: In 1974, I was a student at the University of Dhaka (DU) for a few months before I left for abroad. 

However, I joined DU in 1986 and taught there for 25 long years before taking an early retirement in 2012 to join the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).

I witnessed quite a few notable changes in the institution over all these years. During my early days of teaching, the students had to be more involved in political movements, they had to fight against military rule, and they were always at the forefront of democratic movements. 

Gradually more academic scopes were created, session jots were reduced, more and more female students joined the university and they began to excel more. 

Not only Dhaka University, public universities in general began to face competition from private universities. At the same time, DU was not being able to grow at the required pace that was needed to meet the growing demand for jobs at the global market and domestic market. This began to cause deficits in many places.   

Students were initially more interested in corporate jobs but over time, they began to incline more towards public jobs. 

Moreover, the infrastructure at DU developed but the curriculum did not.  

In its 100 years, was there ever a period when DU played a strong role in producing academic research?

There is no doubt that Dhaka University was the Oxford of the East. There were exceptional teachers and pundits like Professor Bose who is renowned for his collaboration with Albert Einstein. Even today there are brilliant teachers although those golden days of DU no longer exist.

But I would say that we had a glorious past and we will also have a glorious future. To reach that, we need modern facilities for teachers and students and we need to improve the quality of teacher intake.  

Bangladesh will graduate from the LDC status and to keep up with it, and the fourth industrial revolution, and to make the sort of contribution the economy will need, DU has a vital role to play.

Do you think DU should continue to be heavily subsidised by the government? Should the tuition fees be raised?

DU is a place for social mobility where students from the middle-class can still study at a low cost. The tuition fee can be revised but it cannot be commercialised. The state has to recognise that university education is an investment for the future. However, the fees can be adjusted to increase facilities for the teachers and students etc. 

We sometimes hear stories of gross negligence on the part of teachers and officials at DU. What can be done to improve the general level of accountability at the institution?

For the university to see how efficiently it can work, seniors, syndicates, academic councils etc have to contribute to it. Dhaka University has to use its autonomy as a positive trigger.  

The administration has to have zero tolerance towards any wrongdoing so that a high quality of education and teachers' recruitment can be maintained.

Anything else you would like to say on this special occasion?

100 years is a glorious achievement and going forward, we will need excellence in teaching, increase facilities for teachers and students both, and really prepare for a knowledge ecosystem and understand how to tap that. 

There is a master plan going on to develop Dhaka University which is very good and at the same time, we will have to think of ways to ensure quality education which caters to the demand of the future.