Transparency International Bangladesh has claimed to have found “widespread” irregularities – many of them monetary – in at least 22 private universities, without mentioning any name and disclosing details about data collection methods.
The TIB study, titled “Private University: Challenges for Good Governance and Ways to Overcome them,” was conducted from June 2012 to May 2014 among the universities. The report was published at a programme in the capital yesterday.
Asked why the report did not mention the names of the universities, TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said disclosing such information was against their policy.
If the government wanted, only then they would disclose the information, he told reporters.
The summary of the report says among the 22 institutions studied, only four were based outside Dhaka – two each in Chittagong and Sylhet.
But there is no information at all about which method has been followed for selecting the universities.
According to the report, while crores of taka has changed hands for big issues such as getting approval for universities, amounts as small as Tk500 have been exchanged for matters such as ensuring passing marks for students.
The TIB has found that amounts ranging from Tk50,000 to Tk2 lakh are being exchanged for getting names of VCs, pro-VCs and treasurers approved; Tk1 lakh for inspection; Tk10,000-Tk20,000 for settling complaints; Tk1 lakh for preparing illegal audit reports; and so on.
However, the report says nothing at all about the payers and the receivers of these amounts.
About data collection, it says individuals from the Education Ministry and the University Grants Commission (UGC), vice-chancellors, pro-VCs, officials, students and teachers were interviewed; there were focus group discussions; and the universities in question were observed.
Although the summary says the study was a qualitative one and some quantitative data was also collected, there is no detail about which respondents gave out which of the findings.
Although none of the universities were named, the study specifies some of the “representative characteristics” of these institutions: there were specialised and general universities; some had permanent campus and others did not; some were NGO initiatives; and some featured in the preference list of students and guardians and others did not.
One of the key findings of the study is that one of the universities in question awarded certificates to 300 students without actually taking any class and examination in exchange for Tk3 lakh for each certificate.
Another finding is that a tripartite nexus of the officials of the Education Ministry and the UGC and the authorities of some of these universities are creating the scope for such irregularities.
However, the report is not entirely harsh on these private educational institutions.
Under one of the sections titled “positive achievements,” the report praises the institutions for now having more students than public universities and emerging as alternatives to going abroad for higher studies.
More than once, the TIB mentions a UGC report that uses terms such as “ownership disputes” to describe the private universities.
According to the TIB, this is a problem because although the private universities are not for profit organisations on papers, the government body sees them as profit-making entities.
When contacted for immediate reaction, UGC Chairman AK Azad Chowdhury told the Dhaka Tribune: “It seems that they [TIB] are writing whatever they want...Such a study will affect TIB’s credibility.”
He also said the UGC ensured the highest kind of accountability in not only approving universities but also in every other activity.
He said a three-member committee had been formed to look into the allegations.