RESEARCH allocation in the budget of the University of Dhaka has always been a poor show of the authorities as it has happened, too, in the budget for the 2025–2026 financial year. The university’s syndicate on June 16 approved the 2026 budget with Tk 215.7 million set aside for research, which accounts for 2.08 per cent of the total outlay of about Tk 10.35 billion. The budget for the 2024–2025 financial year of about Tk 9.45 billion had Tk 207 million, accounting for 2.12 per cent of the total, set aside in research allocation. Whilst the allocation for research remains too poor to create knowledge, the total outlay for the 2026 budget has increased by about 9.55 per cent from the 2025 outlay and, yet, the 2026 research allocation has increased by about 7.85 per cent in the 2026 budget from the figure of the 2025 budget. A university of the size and stature of the University of Dhaka, of course, needs to spend money on other issues, but it needs to put in more capitals into research.
The University of Dhaka has set aside 28.23 per cent of the outlay for salary, 27.62 per cent for goods and services, 20.84 per cent for allowances and 13.41 per cent for the payment of pension in the 2026 budget. Yet, 2.08 per cent of the outlay is too insignificant for the creation of knowledge even in the humanities where expenses for research are said to be far less than in the sciences. The University Grants Commission is expected to provide the university with about Tk 8.83 billion and the university needs to earn Tk 900 million, which is close to Tk 1 billion, on its own, leaving a deficit of Tk 624.1 million. And, whilst this happens, the commission puts out a call for quality research in institutions of higher education such as colleges and universities as it did at a seminar in December 2024. If the government means the quality of research, what it first needs to do is to increase the education budget well enough that would leave an adequate amount of money for research after the salary of the people employed and the management of the institutions. Whilst the University of Dhaka authorities should seek more money from the University Grants Commission and devise ways to increase its own earnings, the commission should mind the issues of research allocation not merely in the University of Dhaka but in all public universities.
The University of Dhaka and the University Grants Commission should, therefore, work out ways to meaningfully increase research allocation for the creation of knowledge.
