Those ailing public universities
Mahfuzul H. Chowdhury finds much that is revealing in a rare study
The book under review is a pioneering work in the area of corruption in public universities in Bangladesh, although corruption and public universities are both old institutions in Bangladesh. This work basically originated as a research report on corruption in the public universities sponsored by Transparency International Bangladesh and conducted by Muhammad Yeahia Akhter. The author himself is a professor at a premier public university in the country and has been working in the area of corruption studies in Bangladesh. Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) also is a very familiar and prominent organization working in the area of corruption. TIB has been working very sincerely in this field in the form of conducting research on corruption at the macro and micro levels in the country. It has focused on many nationally important institutions and organizations, such as the Chittagong Port, government ministries, departments, etc., and on preparing reports, publishing them and disseminating systematically gathered information to the public. Muhammad Yeahia Akhter also has done other work on corruption in Bangladesh and has published books on diverse issues in this area of national importance. The present work therefore is the result of a laborious effort on the part of both TIB and the author. The public universities of Bangladesh, especially Dhaka University, have long been the centres of national focus for various reasons. Those reasons include their role in the political developments of the country at crucial moments --- the language movement, autonomy movement and the Bangladesh independence movement. Dhaka University and the other public universities, such as Rajshahi and Chittagong universities, also have produced most of the political leaders, administrators, teachers and lawyers of the nation. So when the question of corruption arises regarding these institutions of national pride, naturally it draws the attention of any conscious citizen of the country. Moreover, to my knowledge, the book is the first of its kind to address the issue with an inquisitive mind and an objective method. It contains six chapters, appendices, tables and index. The first chapter discusses the concept of corruption, introduces the issue of corruption in the public universities in Bangladesh and the rationale of the study. The second chapter is built up on the problem of academic corruption, which concentrates around campus politics, connection of students and teachers to national and partisan politics, absence from classes of teachers and students, copying at examinations by students, appointment of unqualified teachers and irregularities in the promotion of teachers. In table one of this chapter, it is noted that at the Chittagong and Dhaka universities' faculties of social science and arts 61.67 per cent, 59.15 per cent, 51 per cent and 54 per cent of scheduled classes were not held because the respective teachers/professors did not show up during the period of the study. In this chapter, it is also reported that some of the students of the public universities were involved in corrupt activities such as extortion, absenting from classes, and cheating in the examinations. But there is a section in this chapter on private universities which does not fit into a context where the author discusses the corruption of the public universities. Chapter three of the work focuses on administrative corruption in the public universities. The practice of administrative corruption is spread over the areas of admission of students, management of departments and dormitories of students, fabricating the dates of birth of the staff, officers and teachers. The study reveals the nature of corruption in the examinations' office by way of a doctoring of the results of examinations in return for money, corruption or irregularities in recruitment, promotion and retirement of teachers, officers and employees. Chapter four of the book deals with financial corruption in the universities on various counts in the areas of transportation, buildings and constructions. There have been financial irregularities in the vice chancellors' offices and in the non-payment of dues owed to the universities by teachers who did not return from abroad. These facts were also published on several occasions in various newspapers. Chapter five gives an account of the opinions of various stakeholders on the issue of corruption in the universities. However, the table of contents of the chapter is very long and detailed where it should have been rather precise and short. Chapter six is the conclusion. The author has rightly pointed out that the Acts relating to the four public universities need to be reviewed and any or some parts of the Acts should be amended to make the universities more efficient in the light of the present situation. The work is a very timely study on a subject of critical national importance and a courageous initiative on the part of the author. He systematically exposes the irregularities at the highest seats of learning in the country. But certain other issues, notably salary discrimination between the public and private universities, procedural differences in the evaluation and grading of the students could have come into the context in the discussion on corruption in the public universities. There are some printing errors, unfortunately; and overall it could have been a better production. The report also could have been a better edited work to be produced in book form. That said, the author and TIB deserve to be congratulated for undertaking this study.
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