‘National University is now focusing on technical and language education’

National University (NU) oversees around 2,500 educational institutions across Bangladesh and provides higher education to 4 million students. NU produces nearly one million graduates every year and is responsible for around 70% of higher education in the country.

Considered to be the world's second-largest university in terms of enrollment, NU is now focusing on technical and language education. At the same time, it is also attempting to move away from political influence and governance issues. 

Professor ASM Amanullah, Vice-Chancellor of National University, in a conversation with Sharier Khan, The Business Standard, talked about how the university plans to do so and much more.

What are the prospects and problems of the National University, in your opinion?

The National University produces nearly one million graduates each year and accounts for 70% of higher education. From law colleges and BEd institutions to physical education and music colleges in Dhaka, and including all other colleges across the country—Police Science College, BKSP, PIB—our programmes are running everywhere.

The contribution of NU to Bangladesh's higher education landscape cannot be overstated. Our graduates mostly go into the private sector, with a smaller portion entering the public sector such as the BCS. Last year, NU ranked third in the Public Service Commission results.

However, there are questions about the quality of education we provide. The initiatives that should have been taken to ensure quality education have been somewhat lacking. 

Previously, NU enrolled students without any admission test. We have introduced admission tests for the next semester. There were also anomalies in the in-course and assignment assessment. From the next semester, all of our affiliated colleges are instructed to send the in-course scripts to NU headquarter in Gazipur. There was no system of re-evaluation for the answer scripts. We already introduced the system, and students are getting the benefits of this initiative. 

We are going to start college monitoring through the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) system, and we are also planning to start auditing the income and expenditure of our affiliated colleges. 

NU is the only university that runs on its own funds—we don't get anything from the University Grants Commission (UGC). This has given us a degree of independence. Constitutionally, NU could reform its curriculum and syllabus if it wanted to—provided there was good governance. Unfortunately, that governance has not been ensured in the colleges. We have begun to address this.

Since taking over, we have dissolved the college governing bodies and reformed them. Previously, these bodies often acted as local powerhouses. The belief was that if someone held the position of president in a college governing body, they could control the whole area. We are trying to break free from that arrangement.

Neighbouring countries like India and Pakistan don't have governing bodies like ours. Now we're considering whether it's possible to do away with them entirely in educational institutions.

So, does the problem lie solely with the governing bodies, or is there more to it?

The governing body is a major problem because of local politics. If someone controls the governing body of a Dhaka college, they can mobilise students onto the streets anytime. This power gets exercised.

For example, consider Mohammadpur Central College. The governing body's president was a minister, Jahangir Kabir Nanok. He would control everything— principals would be appointed or removed at his will, same for vice-principals, and even faculty hires.

The accounts were also managed under his influence because the colleges generate crores in income. There are records showing that in some colleges, funds were disbursed under the guise of grants to various individuals.

Do well-off colleges with good income manage to appoint qualified teachers? And what about those located outside Dhaka?

It's not that there are no qualified teachers—there are many. But what's missing is a system of continuous professional development. 

There's also no clear promotional pathway. In many cases, someone's student is a lecturer, and so is their teacher. Some have been working as lecturers for 10–15 years with no promotion. That promotional structure still has not been established.

What is National University planning regarding technical education?

We're making it mandatory to include a technical course worth 10 to 25 credits alongside Honours and Master's degrees. This way, students will graduate with both an academic and a technical certificate—a double degree. The ministry has accepted it. We are all working together on this.

We're focusing heavily on technical education. The education adviser, the secretary, and our technical secretary are all involved in this effort. Students can choose a technical course aligned with their interests—if someone likes nature, they will work with nature; if they like outsourcing, they will work with outsourcing. We'll cluster students accordingly.

We'll start it next semester. From this semester, we're also making strong ICT skills and English mandatory. From the following semester, we'll launch the technical trade course properly. In this regard, we already signed MoUs with National Skill Development Foundation (NSDF), A2i, and also with some international counterparts.

How do you plan to make students interested in technical education?

It's not that students are not interested in technical education—we're the ones responsible. Those of us making policies and sitting in administrative positions never assessed what students actually want.

Girls in remote parts of Bangladesh are freelancing and earning $2,000 a month, yet we never designed any programmes targeting them. Now, we're trying to reach them with a specially designed programme, despite our limited resources. We aim to produce 5,000 freelancers annually using NU's resources.

Are you introducing any new programmes or methods for teaching foreign languages?

In the last syndicate meeting, we obtained permission to establish a multilingual club under NU. This club will offer Korean, Spanish, English, Arabic, Japanese—and even Bangla, because some people want to learn Bangla properly.

We're setting this up in Gazipur and will gradually bring it to Dhaka at our new campus located beside the UGC. Eventually, we'll pilot this in 250 model colleges. We'll offer it online in places where teachers are unavailable. With this initiative, we are basically targeting industries with demands for skilled workers.

You've mentioned many possibilities and plans. But politics seems to be the main barrier. Educational institutions should focus on learning and skill-building. If instead they become powerhouses, how do you plan to depoliticise them?

I'm not talking about student politics. We've sent a clear message to all institutions: if you want to do politics, do it outside the college. Politics and grouping will not be tolerated inside campuses. We are monitoring this. We want to ensure the principle of 'punish the wrongdoer, protect the well-behaved.'

What we need here is a permanent education commission. Not only do we lack a permanent commission, we don't even have a temporary one. Yet education is a large sector.

When I was a student at Dhaka University, Iranian and Malaysian students came here to study. Look where their economies are now, and where we are. This is a failure of the past 54 years— especially of the past 14–15 years, when extreme politicisation took place. Structural changes alone won't fix everything—we must break out of that hegemony.