Are we doing justice to our higher education?

The education ranking by country for 2025, conducted by the World Population Review, places Bangladesh at 122nd, while Sri Lanka and India rank higher at 61st and 101st, respectively (based on 2020 data). 

This information piqued my curiosity about our performance in the higher education sector. I started searching but couldn't find any comprehensive data on this topic. However, I came across some fragments of information, which prompted me to analyse the data for insights into higher education in these South Asian countries.

India, the most populous country in the world and the second highest-ranked nation in South Asia for education in 2025, has 43.3 million university students, including 5.1 million at the postgraduate level, enrolled in 1,078 universities (UGC India, 2023). Sri Lanka, the top-ranked country in South Asia for education, has 0.16 million university students, of whom 23%, or 37,500 students, are at the postgraduate level, attending 68 universities (Statistical Bulletin, 2023). 

In contrast, Bangladesh, the third-ranked country in South Asia for education, has 1.07 million university students, with 0.4 million at the postgraduate level studying at 55 public, 114 private, and two international universities.

In terms of postgraduate concentration, the data reveals that, on average, India and Sri Lanka have 4,730 and 1,973 students per university, respectively. For Bangladesh, this figure is 2,339 per university. 

While I acknowledge that larger universities attract more students than smaller ones in these countries, it's worth noting that in India, although universities accommodate more postgraduate students on average compared to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, they also host some of the world's leading institutions, such as the IITs and IIMs. 

These produce top scientists, engineers, strategists, and business professionals. Therefore, having a greater number of institutions does not necessarily equate to delivering quality education or, ultimately, developing high-quality human capital for the nation.

Several obstacles are hindering the progress of quality higher education in Bangladesh. In my view, the first barrier is our mindset. My calculations, based on UGC Bangladesh (2023) data, indicate that around 87% of bachelor's students are enrolled in master's programmes at the same university. 

Although bachelor's degrees are considered terminal on paper, people do not treat them as such in practice. Each semester, in my first MBA class at Dhaka University, I ask students: Why are you here? Your bachelor's degree is a terminal degree. Why don't you consider how to apply the education you've already received? 

The common responses I receive are that employers prefer master's degrees over bachelor's degrees or that students and their parents believe it's better to complete studies by obtaining a master's degree before entering the workforce.

Such mindsets are misguided and cause the country to lose approximately 1.5 to 2 years of productive working time from these graduates. Employers should not discriminate against applicants based on their degrees (ie, bachelor's versus master's) when the state recognises a bachelor's degree as terminal. This raises several questions: Are employers favouring master's degrees due to an oversupply of candidates with such qualifications? Do they believe adequate skills can only be acquired after postgraduate study? 

Whatever the reasons, parents and students should abandon the notion that education is only complete with a master's degree. A well-designed and impactful master's programme in a specialised area requires professional and industry experience to optimise knowledge generation and dissemination. 

Students should first assess how their learning translates to real-world work after completing their bachelor's degree, spend time in the workforce adjusting their career paths, and then pursue a specialised master's programme.

The second major obstacle I observe is the lack of specialised offerings in master's programmes. Take, for example, the Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree offered by most universities in Bangladesh, excluding specialised institutions. This degree has been available for about 25 years at Bangladeshi universities (not counting MBAs provided by various institutes of public universities). 

Yet, how many specialised MBAs are universities offering? Almost none. Typically, only a general MBA is provided by specialised departments (e.g., Marketing, Finance), with just a few concentrations in specialised subjects. This general MBA scarcely meets the needs of the industry or the contextual reality, despite the fact that we produce hundreds of thousands of MBAs each year. I often point out that Bhutan's population is smaller than the number of general MBAs we have in the country.

I rarely see any discussion among universities about revamping the MBAs offered in Bangladesh. It appears they are riding the wave—as long as students enrol, they will continue running the MBA programmes. Given the number of people interested in pursuing higher education, universities will attract students to their MBA courses. 

However, the critical question is: Should they? Does this serve the needs of the students, the industry, and the country? I don't believe so. Unless universities offer industry-specific MBAs, the demand-supply gap will persist.

Here are a few questions and points for universities offering MBAs to consider: To what extent are our MBA programmes aligned with the country's export basket? How do they match the manufacturing and services 'Thrust Sectors' identified by the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority? 

Universities should seriously address these issues because a significant misalignment exists between MBA offerings and industry demands. Without change, the higher education sector in Bangladesh will struggle to produce the skilled, specialised graduates needed for national development.

Muhammad Ismail Hossain is a marketing professor at the Department of Marketing, Faculty of Business Studies, University of Dhaka. He is also currently the Dean of Academic Affairs for the Monash, UoL-LSE, and ULan programs at Universal College Bangladesh.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.