In the two widely recognized international university rankings published in the recent times, no university from Bangladesh managed to secure a place in the top 500.
The QS World University Rankings for 2014-15 released on September 16 listed the top 200 international universities based on research quality, graduate employment, staff-to-student ratios, teaching standards and the number of international students.
No Bangladeshi university made it to the list.
Earlier in August, Academic Ranking of World Universities, also known as the Shanghai Rankings, released its 2014 top 500 university list, where no university from Bangladesh could be found as well.
According to the QS figures, University of Dhaka’s (DU) position did not improve in the world ranking. It stood at the same position of 701 like the previous year. It also shows a trend of DU continuously slipping down in the last few years. In 2007 it was 527 from where it fell to 601 in 2012.
On the contrary, neighbouring India’s Delhi University has moved up by 20 steps compared to previous year’s rank.
Even in the QS ranking of Asian universities, Bangladeshi universities failed to secure a place among the top 150. Dhaka University is at 171-180 in this list. However, in terms of Asian universities, DU’s position has improved than the previous year when it was between 201-250.
Among the Asian universities, National University of Singapore took the lead while Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and University of Hong Kong secured second and third positions respectively.
According to the 2014 global ranking of QS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States topped the list. Imperial College London and University of Cambridge jointly secured the second position. Harvard of the US secured fourth while University of Oxford and University College London jointly managed the fifth position.
In the Academic Ranking of World Universities aka Shanghai Ranking, Harvard University secured the first position, Stanford University came second and MIT stood third.
University Grants Commission chairman A K Azad Chowdhury told the Dhaka Tribune that Bangladeshi universities were doing well but could not make it to the list as they had failed to project the achievements.
Sharing his experience as a vice-chancellor of DU from 1997 to 2001, when it was in Asiaweek’s top 100 universities and were in a better position than many Malaysian and Australian universities, AK Azad said, improving the database and website of the university was a crucial requirement for securing a place in the ranking.
He also pointed out that low budget allocation to higher education sector was an impediment to the progress of public universities in the country.
“The budgetary allocation is significant in our neighbouring countries. Without adequate fund, advancement in higher education is not possible.” he said.
