Public universities are going to ask the government to increase their budgetary allocation for improving the quality of tertiary level education and making the country's universities up to international standard.
They will also propose to place the status of the VCs after parliament members and increase UGC's overseeing authority by making it into a "Commission for Higher Education".
University Grants Commission (UGC) chairman, its members and vice chancellors (VC) of public universities will meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today to place the proposals.
UGC Chairman Prof Dr AK Azad Chowdhury told The Daily Star about the plans yesterday after a preparatory meeting was held at UGC with Azad in the chair. VCs of several public universities attended the meeting.
Meeting sources said the amount spent for research and quality education is not adequate as a bulk of the budget goes for salary and other infrastructural expenses.
The latest UGC report also termed the allocation for research inadequate and suggested an increase.
"Increasing the budget is crucial because overall development is largely related with the university education," said Azad.
Since a VC is the academic and administrative leader of a university, his status should be upgraded. "We would propose to put their place after the status of the parliament members in the warrant of precedence," he said.
About the Commission for Higher Education, Azad said the number of public universities were only six when UGC was formed and now the number increased significantly.
Though UGC is doing all the activities both for public and private universities, its terms of reference is narrow and its authority and freedom is also limited, he said.
Ministry for higher education or commission for higher education looks after the tertiary level education in many countries. Converting UGC into one would increase UGC's operational freedom, budget and manpower while accessing more authority to oversee the university activities, he added.
Source : The Daily Star
