& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Redefining the role of universities

Hafiz G. A. Siddiqi
Traditionally, a university is perceived as an institution that imparts higher education to produce all kinds of highly skilled manpower the society needs for its overall development. It undertakes research to create knowledge for national and global benefit. The universities and societies are interdependent. They help each other develop. In the final analysis a university is an institution of higher learning. However, this characterisation does not encompass all the roles a university plays.
There was a time when roles of the universities were limited, elitist and exclusively for men. Oxford and Cambridge admitted women several centuries after they were established. The establishment of the oldest universities was church based. However, the intellectual discourses at the universities revealed a need for qualitative change in their role. By early 19th century, the modern universities dropped their elitist attire and started getting inclusive, admitting both men and women from all strata of society.
The modern universities paved the way for rapid social and cultural changes, becoming more secular and democratic. The changes gradually transformed the universities into cultural institutions that mold young minds. Andre Beteille says: "University education became socially significant because, as open and secular institutions, the universities served as examples and models of a new kind of social existence. The universities provided fertile breeding grounds for a new ideal of social life." This makes a university a social organisation. It deeply interacts with the society and provides "public services" outside the classrooms for the benefit of the society.
With secular and democratic policy of enrolment, universities have come close to common people. Professors no longer philosophise sitting in ivory towers. Universities create social capital through networking among scholars/academics and through collaborations with business houses. Since education is a globalised service, such networking extends globally. In the process, this leads to social changes, making the universities agents of change.
A university is also an economic enterprise. There is a mix of for-profit and not-for-profit universities. As
incubators of new ideas, universities serve as economic engines. In advanced countries research is undertaken to invent new technologies or processes to produce new products, patents or processes to serve the society better at lower cost. Many research activities tend to become business. Comprehensive universities maintain large "incubators"— workshops, industrial laboratories -- where experiments are undertaken joindy with business houses to invent new products and processes. Commercialisation of the related patents, processes and products attracts new investment and creates new employment.
Unfortunately, business houses in Bangladesh do not support private universities in joint research by establishing "incubators" primarily because such a culture does not exist. The universities should try to win the confidence of large business houses by commercialising viable patents. Business houses should support the
universities for mutual benefits.
Private universities manifest economic roles much more strongly. For example, in Bangladesh, all the private universities are market and tuition driven. They operate on business principles. For their sustainability, all of them generate huge surpluses, although most of them claim to be not-for profit. These universities have made investments worth billions of taka. They employ a large number of teachers, administrative staff and other employees.
Besides, they spend huge amount of money in large procurements. All these economic activities have multiplier effects and certainly contribute to GDP. The ROI in the private education sector is perhaps highest among the legally run businesses in Bangladesh. The private universities pay and cause to pay to the government a huge amount as income tax.
All these make universities powerful economic enterprises. The education industry is one of the three largest industries in the world.
Universities play all these roles for the benefit of the society. Unfortunately, these roles generate some unintended negative impact. Higher education system, as long as it operates within capitalistic framework, tends to increase social inequality. The ultimate goal of development is to decrease/eliminate social inequality/injustice. But the modern university education so far has failed to reduce/eliminate inequality. Unless adequate interventions are made effective, prestigious expensive universities will tend to continue to widen the economic and social gap between the rich and poor.
The latter group, even if they are meritorious, cannot study at good universities because they are financially disadvantaged. It is, however, true that scholarships are granted to enable the poor students to obtain degrees from good universities. But experience indicates that the scholar-ships/financial assistance the universities in aggregate provide are far less than what is needed to enable all the meritorious poor students to pursue and complete their studies. Consequentiy, most of the poor students are unable to go for higher study at good universities, and are deprived of the opportunity to climb up socially and economically. Therefore, mostly richer people get better education and succeed in getting better jobs with higher pay.
As a result, inequality between those who succeed in obtaining degrees from good universities and those who cannot tends to widen. It is a systemic flaw that perpetuates social injustice and defeats the development goals. This creates a dilemma: high quality higher education is necessary but the system enforces social discrimination and works as a deterrent to national development based on equity unless its negative impact is neutralised by appropriate policy.
The policy implication is that higher education should be considered as public good, and the state must ensure that no meritorious students are denied access to higher education at a good university only because they are financially disadvantaged. Policy makers must recognise that perpetuating inequality and injustice is not the goal of higher education; therefore they must revisit the higher education policies.