Dhaka: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has recommended limiting the master’s course to only meritorious students to ensure the high quality of education.

“It’s desirable that master’s courses will remain open only for selected meritorious students as the four-year honours degree is considered as ‘terminal degree’, but no university follows it,” the UGC said in its annual report-2015.

As a result, it is not being possible to ensure the expected quality education at the master’s level and the genuine meritorious students are being deprived of quality education, it said. 

“Many public and private universities and university colleges have introduced master’s courses although they have lack of infrastructural facilities and qualified teachers even to run academic activities at the honours level. As a result, those institutions fail to deliver quality education,” the report added.

The regulatory body also called for hiking tuition fees and seat rent at residential halls to boost the incomes of public universities. “A national expectation is needed to implement the proposal. The government is being urged to take step in this regard,” it said.
Blaming the curriculum implementation process, especially the examination system, and unexpected delay in publishing the exam result mainly responsible for session jam, the UGC suggested making the examination system time-befitting and publishing the exam results as per the academic calendar.

Noting that the public universities are unable to play an important role in the field of research which should be considered as one of the criteria for teachers’ promotion, the regulatory body said the field remains in the dark for various reasons, including political consideration for promotion instead of research.

The report mentioned that the public universities took 300 research projects involving Tk 600 crore with the financial help from HEQUP in the last two years.

On teachers’ recruitment at the entry level, the UGC suggested holding demo classes to complete the recruitment process apart from taking written and viva tests following a transparent and acceptable way. “There’s no alternative to teachers with higher degrees. It’s necessary to increase the number of scholarship and fellowship so that university teachers can obtain MPhil and PhD degrees both at home and abroad.”

It also suggested introducing an attractive salary structure for university teachers with all facilities to attract meritorious students to the teaching profession in order to ensure quality of education.

The UGC recommended launching double shifts at the public universities to provide students with more scope to pursue quality higher education.

According to the UGC proposal, the theoretical classes of the 1st shift can be held from 8 am to 1 pm and the practical classes from 2 pm to 5 pm and while that of the 2nd shift from 2 pm to 7 pm and 8 am to 1 pm respectively.

The report also suggested either increasing the number of teachers or introducing honorarium for teachers for taking extra classes.

The University Grants Commission recommended holding a unified admission test at the honours level to lessen the sufferings of the admission seekers as they have to travel to country’s many parts to take part in separate admission tests.