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Al-Qaraween University is the first university built on earth. Built in Fez, Morocco, it is an ancient centre of higher education. According to UNESCO and Guinness World Records, Al-Qarawiyin University in Fez, Morocco, is the oldest university in the world.In the Moroccan city of Fez, Fatima Al-Fihri founded a mosque that became the famous Al-Qarawiyin University. The first universities in Europe were founded by monks of the Catholic Church.
The University of Bologna (Università di Bologna), in Italy, founded in 1088, was the first university in this sense: an institution awarding higher degrees. using the word universitas (from which it was inspired). On the other hand, the world's first residential university is called "Nalanda Vishwavidyaya" and was founded in 500 AD in the state of Bihar, India. Nalanda is one of the most famous universities in history. The university operated for 800 years, from 500 to 1300 AD. Al-Azhar University, founded in Cairo (Egypt) in 972, is considered to be the world's first and oldest university.
The British education magazine Times Higher Education has published its list of the best universities in Asia in 2024. The name of one educational establishment in Bangladesh does not appear among the top 300 universities in Asia.
Forty Indian universities feature in the top 300. In addition, 12 Pakistani universities and 11 Malaysian universities were included in the list.
Among the top universities, the first is Tsinghua University in China, the second is Peking University in China, the third is the National University of Singapore, the fourth is Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the fifth is the University of Tokyo in Japan. The University of Hong Kong, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Fudan University, Zhejiang University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong also feature in the top ten.
BUET and Jahangirnagar University rank between 301 and 350 among the country's universities. Bangladesh Agricultural University and North South University are ranked between 351 and 400.In addition, BRAC University, Dhaka University (DU) and Rajshahi University rank between 401 and 500, while Khulna University and Shahjalal Science and Technology University rank between 501 and 600.
Higher Education ranked universities by assessing a total of 18 factors, including teaching, research, dissemination of knowledge and openness to the world. In recent years, university rankings have been the subject of much discussion in local and international circles. In the age of cybercommunication, university rankings are the subject of much discussion and criticism in the mainstream and social media in Bangladesh. In the age of globalisation, rankings put universities on the international map. University rankings are a valuable tool for educators, students and policymakers. Systematic evaluation of universities, such as rankings based on various criteria including quality of higher education, research output and international reputation, highlights the strengths and weaknesses of institutions.
Times Higher Education, a London-based academic magazine, publishes rankings based on five criteria, namely: teaching, research, citations, international outlook and industry earnings, i.e. the commercialisation of research work with industry.
WebMetrics, a Spanish teaching and research institute based in Madrid, gives priority to ranking the content of the university's institutional website, the best researchers and the most-cited research articles (50% for website content, 10% for the most-cited researchers and 40% for the most-cited articles). The Center for World Universities, based in the United Arab Emirates, has four indicators: education, employability, number of qualified teachers and research (research results, high-quality publications, research impact and citations).
The world-renowned Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings prioritise nine factors: institutional reputation, employer reputation, student numbers, research paper citations by faculty, number of international professors, number of international students, international research network, staff success and sustainability.
Each index has a score of 100, i.e. the average value of the total of 900 scores for the 9 indicators is calculated and the universities are ranked according to the highest score. In the recent QS World University Rankings, no Bangladeshi university is ranked among the top 500 universities in the world. Even according to this year's Times Higher Education regional rankings, no Bangladeshi university is among the top 300 universities in Asia.
The world's best universities are dominated by universities in Western countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, but among them, universities in various Asian countries are making progress. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States tops the list with an average score of 100 out of 100 for the QS indicators. The universities of Cambridge (99.2) and Oxford (98.9) in the United Kingdom occupy second and third place, and Harvard (98.3) and Stanford (98.1) in the United States occupy fifth and sixth place.
Many universities on the Asian continent, such as China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc., rival universities in developed countries in terms of teaching quality. Many universities in neighbouring India and Pakistan also rank highly. The list of the top 500 universities includes 29 universities in China, 15 in Japan, 11 in India and 2 in Pakistan.
However, three Bangladeshi universities (Dhaka University, Bangladesh Engineering University and North South University) are among the top 700 to 1,000 universities in the QS ranking, these universities managed to achieve an average value overall, although they did achieve a value for some indicators. It is for this reason that negative questions are being raised in various quarters about the quality of teaching and research in Bangladeshi universities. The UGC itself has raised questions about the quality of higher education. What is the reason for the ranking of Bangladeshi universities?
A few decades ago, a large number of foreign students were enrolled in the best universities in Bangladesh, but today this number is gradually decreasing. Foreign students are losing interest in studying in Bangladesh due to a lack of adequate information on websites, admission and visa complications, bureaucratic complications, problems with modern accommodation, teaching in the Bengali language and lack of a world-class communication cell. As a result of the above, the number of foreign professors has also declined significantly. The information published on the universities' respective websites is important for the university rankings. In this case, the state of the websites of most of the universities in our country is very fragile; no complete information is available on the basis of the ranking.
Although there is some information on the website, most of it is out of date and is not updated regularly.The university website in our country is full of information about jobs and photos of meetings and get-togethers. Even the e-mail used for communication at the university is sometimes wrong, and it is also said that no reply is received when many e-mails are sent.
To achieve a place in the world rankings, it is not enough to create a university, but also to maintain the quality of teaching and encourage teachers to carry out research. At present, however, the government has taken a number of initiatives to modernise higher education and research in universities. These initiatives include the creation of an accreditation council, an annual performance agreement, an institutional quality assurance unit, a research and innovation centre, the launch of a results-based education system, and so on. These initiatives and the increase in government subsidies are certainly to be welcomed.But to achieve the international ranking mentioned above, concerted efforts are needed under the leadership of the University Grants Commission to address the issues facing the university. In this context, the following points need to be taken very seriously
University infrastructure and curricula should be modernised over time and brought into line with international standards. Smart and virtual classrooms, well-equipped laboratories with modern equipment, high-speed internet and rich libraries should be put in place to improve the quality of higher education and conduct fundamental research. Universities can improve their academic profile by creating a culture of research and innovation, increasing research funding and encouraging faculty members to conduct research.
The university's global reputation can be enhanced by increasing international cooperation and partnerships by signing memoranda of understanding with reputable universities. Foreign students can be attracted by creating joint research programmes, credit transfers, scholarships and student exchange opportunities with leading universities. At the same time, education and teacher-friendly policies, salary scales and separate budgets for university teachers should be formulated to improve the quality of higher education and research.
Teachers believe that the recent inclusion of university lecturers in the state pension scheme has undermined the self-esteem of teachers, which will discourage future talent from entering the teaching profession and higher education. Given all these general problems, the UGC and other government agencies can, by coordinating all the players involved, speed up the achievement of excellent results in the international ranking of universities.The burning question today is whether the global reputation of Bangladeshi universities can be improved?
The writer is a Geneva-based private banking compliance security expert, columnist and poet.
Messenger/Fameema
