New campus?
It is learned that Dhaka University is planning to set up a new campus in the vicinity of the city to accommodate more students. While the government has to provide huge subsidy to Dhaka University at the cost of the poor tax payers, setting up of a new campus is felt to be most ill conceived. Students studying in Dhaka University are mostly the children of the richer section of society. That means poor people are subsidizing the education of the children of rich people! It is not also possible to raise tuition fees of Dhaka University or, for that matter, of other public universities to a reasonable level as it may lead to an uproar among the vested interest groups. People do not mind paying high tuition fees to private universities.
So, additional need for higher education should be met by the private universities and they may be encouraged to open new campuses on the outskirts of the city. The government may offer some grants to them for constructing buildings to meet initial expenses if they fulfil some criteria for providing standard education. This will save the government from huge chronic subsidy from the public exchequer.
So, the Ministry of Education is requested to look into the matter from a pragmatic angle.
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