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The University Grants Commission is about to send its recommendations to chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus, aiming at empowering it to work more independently.

If the recommendations are approved, the University Grants Commission of Bangladesh will work directly under the president or the prime minister instead of any ministry.

The reform initiative came following a set of suggestions of the chief adviser, said commission chairman Professor SMA Faiz,  adding, ‘our scope of work and independence will increase.’

The chief adviser has also proposed renaming the UGC, suggesting two alternative names—University Commission of Bangladesh or Higher Education Commission of Bangladesh.

‘We hope to send our recommendations to the chief adviser’s office by next week,’ said Professor Faiz, adding, ‘We will send copy of the recommendations to the education adviser, too.’

The chief adviser would take the decision, he added.

Plan for reforming the commission comes at a time when the interim government is in power for almost a year.

After the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina-led regime on August 5 past year amid a student-led mass uprising, the commission’s previous chairman and members resigned and the new chairman and members joined.

Professor SMA Faiz told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· on Wednesday that in April this year then education adviser Wahiduddin Mahumud shared with him a 15-point suggestion on higher education sent by the chief adviser for consideration.

‘The chief adviser himself showed interest in changing the UGC’s name to University Commission of Bangladesh or Higher Education Commission of Bangladesh,’ the commission chairman continued.

‘We will not keep the word grants in our title as it seems that we only transact money. But it’s not like that,’ he explained.

The commission, which is now under the education ministry, would work directly under the president or the prime minister if the recommendations are approved.

‘Compared with now, we will enjoy more independence then if we directly work under the president or the prime minister,’ the professor said.

Mentioning that in Pakistan the Higher Education Commission’s chairman position was equivalent to that of a federal minister and the positions of the members were equivalent to that of the state ministers, Professor Faiz said that the proposed commission would be empowered to take step directly without depending on anyone.

Currently, the commission is working under the University Grants Commission of Bangladesh Order, 1973 (President’s Order).

Replying to a question, the UGC chairman said that they had prepared a modification of the present law to increase the commission’s responsibilities and scope of work.

The draft law would outline the framework of the proposed commission and different processes, including the appointment of the vice-chancellors.

‘We already drafted and sent it to the legal cell (of UGC) for checking the legal aspects,’ he added.    

Professor Faiz said that Professor Yunus suggested that a taskforce be formed comprising public and private university teachers to amend the existing law to reform the commission. The CA also suggested that the commission should establish a computerised test system titled Graduate Record Test (GRT) for university graduates who would be encouraged to take the optional test. Professor Yunus also suggested that to institute GRT the commission, if necessary, would take assistance from commercial companies. 

The chief adviser also suggested that the proposed commission would comprise experienced teachers from public and private universities, researchers, young teachers and relevant professionals.

As suggested by the chief adviser, the new commission would be tasked with ensuring the standard of the administration at all universities, teaching and research, among others, to maintain Bangladesh’s competitiveness in the global education sector. The commission would also work to encourage entrepreneurship among the students and a special division of the commission would be responsible for distributing the government’s grant to public universities. The proposed commission would also have its investigation and inspection teams comprising public and private university teachers to monitor the standard of all universities.

Professor SMA Faiz said, ‘The chief adviser clearly wants to increase the standard of higher education, create knowledge through interaction among the universities, take research to global standard and universities to get higher positions in the rankings.’