The University Grants Commission (UGC) of Bangladesh on Sunday signed Annual Performance Agreements (APA) with 15 public universities of the country for the fiscal year 2020-2021 under the Performance Management Framework Policy of the government.
The signing ceremony of APAs for the 2020-21 fiscal year, and the evaluation meeting of APA for 2019-2020 fiscal year was held at the UGC auditorium in the city.
UGC signed the APAs with 15 public universities on Sunday in the first phase. The commission will ink such agreements with 31 other public universities on Monday and Tuesday.
The APA has been introduced to enhance transparency and accountability in government activities, ensure proper utilization of resources, and improve institutional capacity.
UGC Secretary (Additional Charge) Dr Ferdous Zaman and the registrars of the universities concerned signed the agreements on behalf of their respective sides.
Addressing the function digitally, UGC Chairman Prof Dr Kazi Shahidullah said UGC has been working to ensure the overall progress of higher education, transparency, accountability, and encourage outcome-based activities.
Dr Kazi Shahidullah said several public universities are running with acting registrars and the vice-chancellors of the universities should appoint permanent registrars quickly so that the registrars can cooperate with the vice-chancellors to run universities in accordance with existing rules and regulations.
Noting that there is a lack of discipline in public universities at present, the UGC chairman said maintaining institutional rules and proper implementation of existing regulations are highly needed to take the universities forward.
The UGC has been signing APAs with public universities since the 2016-17 fiscal year, said a release.
UGC members Prof Dr Dil Afroza Begum, Prof Md Sazzad Hossain, Prof Muhammed Alamgir, Prof Dr Biswajit Chanda, and Prof Md Abu Taher also spoke on the occasion.
