EACH year, our nation鈥檚 universities recruit thousands of new lecturers straight from master鈥檚 programmes, often before they have ever penned a single peer-reviewed article. On the very first day of teaching, these fresh appointees discover that academic promotions hinge almost entirely on formal qualifications rather than on any demonstrated record of inquiry or innovation. In most research-driven systems around the world, entry into the professoriate demands not only advanced degrees but also measurable contributions to knowledge, such as published papers in indexed journals, funded projects and scholarly collaborations in national and international contexts. In contrast, too many of our institutions elevate candidates on the strength of diplomas alone, with little expectation that they will conduct original research. The result is a credential-centric culture that starves universities of rigorous investigation, undermines our capacity to address complex national challenges and leaves Bangladeshi higher education perennially on the margins of global scholarship. If we are to prepare graduates for the demands of the twenty-first century and to harness academic expertise for economic growth and social progress, policymakers and university leaders must confront this paradox head-on and recalibrate hiring and promotion criteria to reward genuine research excellence.
The University Grants Commission of Bangladesh鈥檚 most recent report lays bare a troubling disparity in our higher鈥恊ducation workforce. Fully 87.31 per cent of teaching staff across both public and private universities today carry the title of assistant professor or higher, an extraordinary concentration of seniority. By comparison, in the world鈥檚 top research institutions, only about one in ten professors holds an equivalent rank, and those who do almost invariably back their titles with substantial publications and grant awards. Closer to home, just 38.03 per cent of faculty members in our government and autonomous universities hold doctoral degrees, whereas neighboring India reports an 81.03 per cent PhD鈥恈redential rate among its academic staff. In other words, Bangladesh has more senior titles than it has serious researchers. Our universities are thick with lecturers whose elevation reflects credential accumulation rather than contributions to scholarship. This imbalance weakens our universities鈥� ability to generate cutting-edge research, discourages ambitious young academics and ultimately limits the nation鈥檚 capacity for innovation. To reverse this trend, policymakers must ensure that senior faculty appointments and promotions rest not merely on paper qualifications, but on evident research output and meaningful contributions to knowledge. This mismatch manifests most starkly in our research output. According to Scopus, a globally recognised research platform that regularly publishes peer-reviewed research, in 2024 alone, Indian scholars published 287,802 peer-reviewed articles, Pakistan contributed 37,526, and Bangladeshi researchers contributed only 15,413. Even more telling, Bangladesh鈥檚 share of total world scholarly output has been declining year on year. Our universities have become training grounds for teaching at scale, but not for generating new knowledge.
With inflated faculty rolls, universities expend substantial budgets on salaries and infrastructure maintenance, leaving scant resources for research grants, laboratory development, or international collaboration. What little funding exists is often tied to promotions and academics are encouraged to chase easy publications in predatory or unindexed journals to meet career advancement requirements, rather than pursuing substantive projects that address national challenges. The result is a vicious cycle where faculty are hired for teaching without research expectations, then incentivized to produce low-impact papers solely to secure promotion. The consequences extend far beyond institutional rankings. When universities do not emphasize robust, curiosity-driven inquiry, they fail to equip students with critical thinking skills and deprive society of innovations that can drive industrial competitiveness, public health improvements, or sustainable development. International ranking bodies such as QS and Times Higher Education consistently place Bangladeshi universities in the bottom quartile among world institutions, a reflection not of student ability, but of systemic neglect of research as a mission.
Addressing this crisis requires a multifaceted strategy that realigns institutional priorities and resources toward scholarship as well as teaching. First, universities must establish differentiated career tracks so that those hired for research demonstrate a proven record of peer-reviewed publications and grant awards. In contrast, those on teaching tracks are evaluated primarily for pedagogical excellence. Second, departments should adopt explicit, annual research quotas quantified in terms of articles in indexed journals, patent filings, or externally funded projects, and tie budget allocations and individual evaluations to meeting these targets. Third, each institution should create an independent research office charged with distributing merit-based seed grants; proposals would be assessed through transparent, peer-reviewed processes that favor projects with demonstrable societal or economic impact. Fourth, faculty should be incentivised to involve undergraduates and graduate students as active research collaborators, cultivating a mentorship culture that seeds future scholars. Among this, leadership at the highest levels of university boards, vice-chancellors and department heads must publicly recommit to a dual mandate of excellence in both teaching and inquiry, setting clear expectations that every faculty member contributes to the university鈥檚 research portfolio. Parallel to this cultural shift, resource allocation models must be recalibrated to explicitly earmark seed funding, laboratory infrastructure and administrative support for research initiatives rather than absorb them into general operational budgets. Only once this foundation of shared vision and dedicated support is in place can the subsequent reforms, including differentiated hiring streams, mandatory quotas, robust grant administration, student engagement, and international collaboration, be implemented meaningfully and sustainably. Finally, international collaboration must become the norm, with sabbatical programs and competitive fellowships enabling promising researchers to work at leading global institutions, import best practices and forge partnerships that elevate both individual careers and the reputation of Bangladeshi academia as a whole. Without these interventions, Bangladesh鈥檚 universities will remain teaching mills rather than centers of discovery. In an era when knowledge economies drive national prosperity, our failure to cultivate a research ethos is a strategic liability. Academic careers must be anchored not only in the lecture hall but also in the laboratory, archives and field sites where new insights emerge.
It is time to recognise that research-free teaching is a journey without direction. The nation鈥檚 future depends on universities that balance educational excellence with the relentless pursuit of new knowledge. Only then can Bangladeshi academia claim its rightful place on the world stage and fulfill its duty to propel society forward.
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Dr Munshi Muhammad Abdul Kader Jilani holds a PhD in Knowledge Management from the School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology in China. He is currently working as an assistant professor at the Bangladesh Institute of Governance and Management.