Beyond certificates: Why Bangladeshi tertiary education requires reform and stronger industry connection

Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics' 2024 Labour Force Survey discloses a distressing discrepancy between education and employment. Of 2.62 million unemployed people, 885,000 hold bachelor's degrees. One in three unemployed youths is highly educated. 

Over eight years, graduate unemployment has more than doubled. Graduates often remain jobless for over two years, facing financial and mental pressure in a saturated job market. The problem also reveals a profound disconnect between what universities teach and what the economy needs, or we may question: do the universities really know what the industry needs. To address this crisis, Bangladesh must rethink higher education from the ground up.

Building employability from within

Many education reformers call for applied courses and hands-on training. But practical skills alone will not solve unemployment. Career pathways require clear directives and strong awareness. Universities need robust career services, alumni networks and employer mentoring. 

As a faculty, for example, at Jahangirnagar University's English Department, curricular innovation has been a crucial step into employability. We offer an interdisciplinary curriculum spanning cultural studies, professional communications, translation studies, film and media studies, digital humanities, and critical applied linguistics. Our graduates enter diverse fields from research to creative industries and policy work. 

Another curricular restructuring that our universities can adopt is general education curriculum (GenEd) or core curriculum where students must complete courses distributed across different knowledge areas (humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, mathematics) regardless of their major. Brac University has successfully adopted this framework enhancing the employability of their graduates. Universities need dedicated career wings that connect students with industries from their first year. They need workshops that help students map their skills to actual job roles. They need mentorship programmes and industry networking events showcasing their innovative ideas to potential recruiters. To universities for graduate employability like UNSW embed career development throughout degree programmes, not as an afterthought in the final year.

This becomes even more urgent as we enter the AI era. Artificial intelligence will replace significant portions of human labour. Our curricula must equip all graduates with digital literacy, data analysis capabilities, and the soft skills that machines cannot always replicate. 

Critical thinking, cross-cultural communication, ethical reasoning, and creative problem-solving will distinguish employable humans from automated systems.

Bangladesh's private sector tells a troubling story. Employers claim they struggle to find people for mid-level roles, yet thousands of educated young Bangladeshis remain without work. Many companies bring in Indian professionals for technical and managerial posts in garments, IT and manufacturing. Official reports show large numbers of foreign work permits in recent years, with Indian nationals receiving the biggest share. 

Transparency International Bangladesh has already warned that loopholes in governance let firms bypass rules that require proof of local unavailability, deepening inequity for graduates. We need to tighten controls on expatriate "specialist" hiring, demand employer investment in local skills, and align curricula to industry. If industry and universities work together, those mid-level jobs can be filled by the people who call Bangladesh home.

Fixing systemic failures

We have opened departments and institutions without clear needs analysis or context assessment. This arbitrary expansion creates false expectations among graduates and leads to collective frustration. Dhaka University now has around 86 departments. Each department must justify its existence with clear employment pathways, academic rigour, and available human resources. The University Grants Commission should stringently monitor proposals for new departments. The rehabilitative approach of opening departments simply to create academic jobs does injustice to enrolled students who expect meaningful career prospects.

The same question applies to proliferation of Masters programmes. What can an MBA graduate do in the banking sector that a BBA graduate cannot do? This question challenges how we justify job requirements. Most corporate positions now prioritise Masters degrees as baseline requirements. This arbitrary credentialism has driven exponential growth of public and private universities offering commercialised postgraduate programmes. The result? Credential inflation. A bachelor's degree rarely suffices for entry-level positions. Students feel compelled to pursue Masters degrees not necessarily for knowledge but to survive in the rat-race for employment. Does every banking officer need an MBA? Does every administrator need a Masters in Public Administration? The UGC should audit existing programmes and challenge universities to demonstrate how postgraduate degrees translate into distinct employability advantages.

Let's consider another domestic scenario: Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology produces brilliant engineers. Yet we see very few BUET graduates engage in material, technological, and digital innovations that reach global audiences or consumers. The problem lies in materialising these ideas at industrial scale. Universities lack mechanisms to commercialise ideas and scale prototypes. 

Bangladesh needs technology transfer offices similar to those in UNSW or MIT. These offices help students and faculty patent inventions, connect with investors, and navigate commercialisation.

Bangladesh sends thousands of workers abroad annually. Most enter low-skilled positions. Meanwhile, countries like the Philippines systematically prepare workers for skilled migration through their Technical Education and Skills Development Authority. Filipino nurses, engineers, and managers work globally because their education aligns with international standards. Bangladeshi universities should develop programmes that align with international qualification frameworks. Degrees in hospitality management, healthcare administration, and logistics coordination would position graduates for supervisory roles. A cleaning manager in an airport requires minimal soft skills. A human resources manager for cleaners requires substantial managerial skills. Question is: which positions do we want to see our migrant labour force filling in?

As a culture of prestige, we have yet to give proper value to vocational and technical education reflected in the under-developed and underfunded technical colleges and polytechnic institutions. The elite capture of university education has long undermined vocational and technical institutions. Thousands of students pursue higher degrees with very limited employable fields while industries desperately need skilled technicians, electricians, and mechanics. Bangladesh could adopt Australia's TAFE model. These Technical and Further Education institutions significantly promote Australian national economy and social equity. TAFE offers practical, industry-aligned training and certifications in fields from aged care, maintenance to advanced manufacturing. Graduates enter the workforce immediately with skills employers actually need. Bangladesh must invest in vocational institutions with the same seriousness we invest in universities and elevate their prestige through public campaigns and salary parity.

World Bank funded projects like the Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project have been visible in Bangladeshi institutions for over a decade. Unfortunately, they have focused on structural and logistical aspects without addressing core academic questions. They have not examined how curricula connect to labour markets or how universities build industrial partnerships. Consider academic publishing. We have not established publication as an industry despite its potential. We offer no graduate degrees or diplomas in editorial management, copyediting, or peer reviewing. While publishing giants like Routledge and Oxford extended joint ventures to India, we have yet to develop university presses with international standards. This limits career paths for humanities graduates, restricts visibility of Bangladeshi scholarship, and forces academics to publish abroad. Quality assurance should measure graduate employability, research impact, and contribution to national development. Universities must partner actively with industries. Engineering schools must build technology transfer mechanisms. Degree programmes must align with international standards while addressing local needs.

Addressing this crisis requires political will, integrated thinking, and "our people first" policy. We must see higher education not as a credential factory but as the foundation of economic transformation. The question is whether Bangladesh will mobilise this potential or continue to waste it. Bangladesh's large population can be a strength only when people gain real skills. The task is to turn humans into skilled human resources through training, practical experience and clear career pathways.

Kazi Ashraf Uddin, Associate Professor, Dept. of English, Jahangirnagar University