Soon after the publication of my article on the art of teaching and learning at The Daily Star on June 28, a reader shared her thoughts with me. She worked with students in many government and NGO-run primary schools as part of a Teach for Bangladesh fellowship programme.

“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.” — John Milton in Areopagitica (1644)

Higher education is rapidly expanding in developing countries. There were only four public universities at the time of Bangladesh’s inception as a sovereign country in 1971. The country has now a total of 43 public and 103 private universities. The number of students enrolled in universities has shot up from 4,11,717 in 2008 to10,28,314 in 2018 (BANBEIS). But what does it mean for economic development?

Recently, there has been much discussion in Bangladesh about international ranking of universities.

The University of Dhaka has achieved a lot in these 98 years, and it has played a pivotal role in structuring the country’s economy, politics, society and development. Through the many scholars it has given birth to, the university has made inspiring strides in different fields and has taken academics substantially further from the point it was at almost a century ago.

In a recent article (The Daily Star, June 13) Professor Syed Saad Andaleeb argued in favour of smaller class size and blending research with teaching for quality education.

There can never be enough emphasis given to the importance of education. It’s a well-known fact that children who learn to read, write, add, and subtract provide a much better future for themselves, but even the superlative medicines are best served in adequate beneficial dosages.

In an article published by The Daily Star on 26 April, 2019, Professor Syed Saad Andaleeb shed light on the lack of attention given to research in many public and private universities in Bangladesh. He makes a compelling case for the need to strengthen university-

It came as a shock to many that no Bangladeshi university made it to the top 417 in Asia in the latest Times Higher Education ranking. This, however, should not have come as a surprise as international competitiveness of Bangladesh’s best universities has been declining over the years as reflected in previous rankings.

Ask faculty members in the country’s universities what would motivate them to devote more time to research and you will hear one common answer: decrease present course loads and class sizes. Both factors continue to weigh heavily on their daily toil and pursuit of excellence.

Societies in both developed and developing countries are increasingly aware of the vital role that university graduates can play to advance their economies. Many examples can be cited where graduates helped to pull their countries out of recession (David Willetts 2017).

In Sariakandi upazila of Bogura district, there are 168 primary schools, 44 of which are in char or sandy shoals created by the shifting and temperamental Jamuna River. The Daily Star reporter Mostafa Shabuj visited 16 of the char schools recently.

AG Stock was a visiting scholar at the Department of English at Dhaka University from 1947 to 1951. In her recollection of her time in Dhaka, she reminisced about befriending future luminaries such as poet Jasimuddin and professor Munier Choudhury.

In the run-up to preparing the budget for the financial year 2019-2020, consultations are being held, like in the previous years, by the finance minister and his senior colleagues with various stakeholders.

Bangladesh has made a space for itself in the region. Over the last few decades, there has been stable economic growth underpinned by increased investments for human development, poverty alleviation, increased access to microcredit,

“It is most difficult to get people on the path to research and publication. That culture, that appetite, that scholarly commitment has eroded considerably. [They] LOVE the microphone, they HATE the pen.”

Leave no one behind” is the guiding spirit of the education agenda to be achieved by 2030 under the global Sustainable Development Goals adopted in 2015.

The 2011 data-driven assessment of Dhaka University (DU) as to whether it can turn itself around by 2021 was met with silence except for the publication of “University of Dhaka: Making, Unmaking, and Remaking” in 2016. The editors hoped,

In Tanzania, teacher Respicius Patrick Mutazangira (51) has been sentenced to death by hanging for murdering pupil Sperius Eradius (14) through the “malicious and zealous” use of corporal punishment.

Discussions about research in Bangladesh's higher education institutions (HEIs) have become animated and contentious in recent times.