President Abdul Hamid asked the private universities today to not be guided by commercial interests.
"Education is not a commodity," he told the convocation of American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB) as its Chancellor at the Military Museum ground at Bijoy Sarani, reported BSS.
He added: "Education must not be commercialized in any way."
A total of 2430 students of different disciplines were awarded graduate and post-graduate degrees at the ceremony, also joined by Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid as the special guest.
University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman Professor A K Azad Chowdhury spoke as the convocation speaker while Vice Chancellor of the University Dr. Carmen Z. Lamagna also spoke on the occasion
The President said the universities will have to act as social welfare bodies along with imparting quality education giving priority to the interest of the country and the nation
The President, who is also Chancellor of all universities, said country's universities would have to achieve international standards.
He asked all university authorities to start various programmes for exploring the creativity of the students. "We can't compromise with science and technology based quality education," he said.
The President said education should be life-oriented and nurture talents of people and create employment. "Not only certificate based bookish education, we want such education that makes us enlightened human beings, creative personalities," he said
Presently, he said Bangladesh needs such a form of education that will teach students to wipe out all superstitions, narrowness and fundamentalism as well as give emphasis on unity among human race eradicating all discrimination.
"We have to keep in mind that today we are not only citizens of Bangladesh, we are also the global citizens," he said adding, "We will be lagging behind, if we fail to advance keeping parity with education of other countries around the world."
President Abdul Hamid said the National Education Policy- 2010 was formulated for building knowledgeable, skilled, patriotic and secular citizens with the capacity to face local, national and global challenges.
Noting that the government gave enough importance to the development of higher education, the President said it has established more than half a dozen of public universities and given approval to a number of private universities. The Private University Act-2010 has been formulated for ensuring quality higher education at the self-owned campuses of all private universities, he added.
The President said Bangladesh showed tremendous success in higher education. The number of students at higher education level was 11.5 lakh in 2005 that is now more than 22 lakh. "It is a rare instance in the world to make higher education rate double in 7-8 years," he said.
The President hoped that the new graduates would lead a good life in this competitive world that helps the country, the nation and their respective families.
