Revitalizing Higher Education in Bangladesh: Insights from Alumni and Policy Prescriptions
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Revitalizing Higher Education in Bangladesh: Insights from Alumni and Policy Prescriptions Syed Saad Andaleeb Pennsylvania State University, Erie Sam and Irena Black School of Business, Station Road, Erie, PA 16563-1400, USA. E-mail: [email protected]
Higher education in Bangladesh must become more responsive to the needs of a major constituency: its students. How this might be accomplished is examined in this study using a nine-factor model to explain the satisfaction of alumni with their education. These factors include teacher quality, method and content, peer quality, facilities and resources, the effectiveness of the administration, campus politics, gender, and year of graduation. A probability sample was selected using a combination of cluster and systematic sampling. Multiple regression was used to test the hypotheses. The results indicated that five of the nine variables were significant in the model and explained 47% of the variation in the dependent variable. Policy implications of the model are discussed. Higher Education Policy (2003) 16, 487–504. doi:10.1057/palgrave.hep.8300036 Keywords: Bangladesh; student satisfaction; higher education
Introduction The rapid expansion of education systems in the past 30 years in Asia, particularly East Asia, and the ascendance of this region in social and economic status in the community of nations, testifies to the strategic role of education in shaping the future of a country. Some of these countries lead the world in cross-national comparisons of student achievement (Chapman, 2000). According to The World Bank (1993), the investments of these countries in their education systems were the largest determinant of economic growth. The World Bank (1995) also suggested that, ‘Other things equal, the more educated a nation’s workers, the greater their potential to catch up with prevailing technologies and so achieve more rapid growth.’ The critical role that education plays in a nation’s future is aptly portrayed in the case of Taiwan, which initially made quick gains in technological prowess. Yet, its recent efforts to turn itself into a ‘high-tech island’ have been hindered by a shortage of well-educated and creative people in the work force (Chien-Ai, 1997). According to Taiwan’s Commission on Educational Reform, the government is insufficiently committed to educational excellence; conse-
Syed Saad Andaleeb Revitalizing Higher Education in Bangladesh
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quently, its dreams of building a high-tech island have not fully materialized. Another study showed the significant contributions of a university to regional development in Australia. Thus, according to Keene and Allison (1999), universities not only help develop a region, they can also strategically position that area as a learning region in the knowledge economy. Education and development are intertwined. Through education a country develops its productive human resources that serve as the engine of social and economic transformation. According to Harbison (1973, 3), ‘human beings are the active agents who accumula
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