Rethinking Higher Education Governance in Bangladesh

Published on: August 2, 2026

The higher education system in Bangladesh is always at the peak of debate among students. It is a cluster of issues: logistical hurdles, a lack of engagement between teachers and students, and irrelevant political intervention, among others. Ultimately, the system lacks a proper vision. It was never visionary enough to ensure the presence of competent, skilled, and knowledgeable people in a nation's future. This lack of vision produces a broken higher education system that is incoherent for a country like Bangladesh. As a student from a prominent higher educational institute of Bangladesh, and from my experience of working with my university’s administrative system, I will describe a logistical nightmare created by a non-visionary higher educational system that requires a policy shift and, most importantly, a vision of where we want to see our education system or what we want to achieve from it for the future.

From my experience working at the Office of the Controller of Examinations at the University of Dhaka, I have come to understand that the well-known Registrar Building of the university has borne the burden of numerous medical and nursing institutions, engineering colleges, and other institutions. The University of Dhaka oversees the academic curriculum, examination, and certification of more than 120 institutions across Bangladesh. Once, seven major government colleges in Dhaka were part of it; they left the group in 2025 and are facing an uncertain fate. The number includes more than 50 medical colleges, alongside more than 30 nursing colleges, and more than 10 dental colleges, including both government and private. Nearly 10 engineering institutions, the same number of health technology and rehabilitation institutions, and five home economics colleges are also affiliated with it. While the university itself is struggling with its own problems, the question is whether it is capable of overseeing all these institutions. This is the biggest case study of a completely dysfunctional higher education system.

Bangladesh is famous in this region for an affordable medical education system. But the country still cannot enjoy its branding due to the structure of medical education. To make it easy, if you complete your MBBS degree from Dhaka Medical College (DMC), your certificate will be signed and awarded by the University of Dhaka. On the other hand, if you pass MBBS from any medical college located in Chittagong, Sylhet, or Rajshahi, your certificate will mention Chittagong, Sylhet, or Rajshahi Medical University. It is geography that dictates the certification of both government and private medical colleges in Bangladesh. While there is a university named Bangladesh Medical University (BMU), it deals with only postgraduate degrees. The entire system lacks a proper national branding of a specific educational sector that is somehow attracting most of the foreign students who come to study in this country.

In 2021, the University Grants Commission (UGC) initiated the GST (General, Science, and Technology), a combined admission test system to reduce the hurdle of travelling several districts to participate in different admission tests for different institutions. We could have seen it as a step ahead, but it has shown another layer of fragmentation. First of all, is it accurate to bring general universities like Jagannath University (JnU) and Comilla University (CoU) under a single umbrella with universities like Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) and Noakhali Science and Technology University (NSTU)? What is the proper dividing line between a general university and a science and technology university? Secondly, major universities such as the University of Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, and Jahangirnagar University did not participate in this framework. It creates educational elitism at the beginning of the framework. The combined admission test is not new in Bangladesh. The CKRUET examination included three engineering universities, but the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) was always excluded. Major universities staying out of any structural reform automatically pose questions about the acceptability of the structure.

It is high time to create a visionary structure. India sets a good example of a visionary educational model, particularly through introducing an Institute of National Importance (INI) model. For example, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have created a role model for sector-based study through a centralized independent system and by giving each institution total academic autonomy. India has developed in the IT and R&D sectors over the last few decades, and IITs played a significant role in this arena. In Bangladesh, after blending the Science and Technology universities with general universities under a GST system, there is no remaining exclusivity for the S&T universities in the eyes of students, except for two extra words in their name. Some recommendations are very needed to create a vision the nation requires now. First of all, we need a centralized system to govern these specific S&T universities and set goals for the exclusive needs they were established to fulfill. Autonomous universities like DU are already suffering from logistical backlogs. Policy reforms should reduce pressure on them and let them focus on their own educational excellence, particularly in research and development. The medical education system should focus on branding by creating formal medical institutions to oversee the entire system, rather than being packed in regional clusters and universities that lack exclusivity in medical education, like DU. There should be specific, proper bodies to oversee nursing, engineering, and all other sector-based educational institutions. Just letting them be maintained by larger educational institutions that are also suffering from their own problems can never create any excellence.

The biggest reform is needed for the National University of Bangladesh (NUB), as it shares the biggest portion of higher education in Bangladesh. We need a full article to talk about it. If policies can develop the quality of education here, it can revolutionize the country alone. The changes must be sophisticated and visionary. Increasing the number of universities often reduces the quality of higher education. In Bangladesh, prominent universities are still failing to maintain international standards; we need to push them rather than create more. The education system must have a long-term vision rather than short-term ad hoc techniques.