Abstract:

Public Universities are an important sector of public governance. Nowadays global governance is
getting more and more relevant with the increasing importance of a globalized world. The paper
mainly centers the public universities of Bangladesh as fields of global governance of public
institutions. The educational institutions run directly or indirectly by the governments are an
important element of public sector which is dynamic in every way. The involvement of such a big
sector in ensuring governance in global manner includes the progress and obstructions these
institutions of governance are currently facing. Such discussions are also important to develop
the institutions of public sector governance which are public universities in this regard for the
sake receiving better outcomes through good public sector governance.
Introduction:
In recent years, the term "global governance" has become a frequently used expression.
However, the meaning of the term remains diverse depending on the person employing it or the
circumstances under which it is used. But discussions on global governance and public institutions
didn’t occur much except recent past. With the growing researches on public sector management
and good governance, public institutions are also on the light of ensuring better results for the
development of the global populace. Global governance targets particular outcomes, both
positive and negative, and embodies strategies for either achieving or avoiding those outcomes.
The principals, those who govern ultimately determine which outcomes are of greatest
importance. Both the outcomes and the strategies chosen will influence the site of governance
and optimal institutional characteristics. As governance on global level has its ties with public
sector and the management of it, the various public universities and their outcomes can be a
good sector to understand the overall performance of public sector of Bangladesh.
The concept of Global Governance:
The ideal of global governance is a process of cooperative leadership that brings together
national governments, multilateral public agencies, and civil society to achieve commonly
accepted goals. It provides strategic direction and then marshals collective energies to address
global challenges. To be effective, it must be inclusive, dynamic, and able to span national and
sector based boundaries and interests. It should operate through soft rather than hard power. It
should be more democratic than authoritarian, more openly political than bureaucratic, and
more integrated than specialized. Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi defined global governance as “the
activities and processes of government and governing located at several different government
levels; that is local, national, regional and global.” (Fraser-Moleketi: 2005) Neither the concept
nor the difficulty of global governance is new. After the First World War ended, the leaders of
the victorious allies gathered in Paris in 1919 for six months of talks aimed at redrawing many of
the world's national borders and establishing a permanent forum, the League of Nations, to deal
with future issues and problems. More than 30 countries sent delegations to the Paris peace
conference, but the four great powers of the winning side, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and
the United States, dominated and controlled the proceedings. A quarter of a century later, as the
Second World War drew to a close, allied delegations gathered again to set up new institutions
to replace the failed League and to prevent the economic disasters that had characterized much

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of the interwar period. From those storied discussions, most of which were held in and
overwhelmingly influenced by the United States, at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire; at the
Dumbarton Oaks mansion in Washington, D.C. and in San Francisco, California, emerged the
multilateral agencies that would mold economic and political relations for the next six decades:
the United Nations, with its Security Council and its specialized agencies; the Bretton Woods
institutions, the World Bank and the IMF; and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT). This model of global governance, in which the few countries that sat at the apex of the
world economic pyramid invited others to participate without ceding much control, became the
prevailing paradigm for the postwar era.
Global Governance of Public Institutions:
Global governance, national governance, local governance, and much more can be characterized
in geopolitical level. Global governance is used in various public spheres including economic
governance, social governance and environmental governance. Various global or public goods
such as land governance, water governance and internet governance is described by the use of
it. And global governance may refer to various economic sectors such as public governance, and
corporate governance. Governance of various public institutions simply means the exercise of
economic, political and administrative authority to manage a country’s affairs at all levels. Public
institutions are an important element of ensuring governance in both national and international
levels. Governments needed to be backed by strong public institutions with responsibility for
guaranteeing the public interest over private ones. Public institutions could not simply revert to
conventional bureaucratic functions because the concept of governance emerged to emphasize
the participation and interests of the public as well as the need for public officials to uphold
strong responsiveness, equity, transparency and accountability as core principles of public
management. The term “public governance” has become closely associated with the way the
State plays its various roles in social, political and economic development. The practice of
managing public affairs encompasses aspects that are related to the concepts of public
administration, public management and public governance. The three have merged to
complement one another in the management of the State and development. By the end of the
20th century, it was clear that the way forward would be through cross-sector partnerships
among governments, private businesses and civil society organizations in achieving good
governance. It became essential, therefore, for governments to incorporate frameworks and
mechanisms that would facilitate greater participation in policy formulation by all governance
actors to enhance responsiveness and accountability in the management of public affairs.
Problems and Prospects of Public Universities in Bangladesh:
The public universities are at the heart of creating good human resource for Bangladesh. The
growing competition with the various private universities of the country are also helping the
public universities to create better knowledge and above all human beings. The 33 public
universities of Bangladesh are aiming to make the country a better place with the best talents of
Bangladesh. But these universities pose some severe lacking which are obstructing them to
achieve the desired public development. Along with these, many hopes of the future which only
the public universities of the country have in their hands are also important to discuss to

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understand the actual possibility of global governance in these institutions. Such problems and
hopes for the days ahead are as follows:
 Politicization
Students of Bangladesh have played an important role in the most crucial moments of national
interest and democratization, such as Language Movement in 1952, Liberation War in 1971, and
Democracy Movement in 1990. Yet, today, student-run politics in universities or such institutions
are dominated by outside forces that do not speak for the students' benefit at all. But today, the
student political bodies in public universities in Bangladesh do not serve the interests of the
students at all. The top three student political groups of Bangladesh are the student wings of the
Bangladesh Awami League (AL), Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), and Jamaat-e-Islami. Thus,
students who are involved in politics in public higher education institutions primarily serve the
interests of Bangladesh's national political parties. These parties have been involved in extensive
violence frequently in large public institutions. A group of Chhatra League men wrongly identified
a 24 year old tailor named Bishwajit Das to be an opposition activist and beat him to death in
2012. Another English newspaper reported that the very same day that the Bishwajit murder
verdict was given, students of the same political affiliation had beaten up a non-political student
at Dhaka University, suspecting he was from the opposition. It is now common for institutes of
higher education to be closed during strikes caused by student politics. In any academic year, a
minimum of 20 days is usually lost due to student political unrest. (Zaman: 2014)
 Unplanned Expansion
In absolute terms there has been an impressive quantitative expansion in the general university
education even though the rate of increase in science and technology sector in not significant.
There is no objection to such increase in line with population increase and increase in primary
and secondary level output. But the crux of the problem is that such increase always does not
correspond to the needs, required infrastructure, faculty and financial facilities (UGC: 2006).
 Library and Laboratory
Library and laboratory conditions are not conducive for quality education. There is no denying
the fact that the use of library facilities by students and teachers have declined over the years.
The teachers in most cases seem to rely on particular texts and the students seems to possess
increasingly poorer language ability to comprehend and explore the vast expanse of scholarship
that the libraries hold. The libraries are poor as they lack adequate resources to buy recent
publications and order for the basic journals. Likewise, the laboratories suffer from inadequacy
of equipment. Import dependence for such items have made the problems much more complex
(Mahmud: 2002).
 Attraction of Talents:
An important prospect of public universities in Bangladesh is the attraction of the young talents
in the country towards these. Almost all the good result holders in SSC and HSC of the country
aims to study in Dhaka University or BUET. As a result these universities along with many other
public universities of the country are sure of getting talented students in their academy which is

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important to ensure quality of education in these institutions. Almost 260,000 students applied
for the just 5000 seats in Dhaka University in 2016. In BUET (Bangladesh University of Engineering
and Technology) this number is over 1 lakh students fighting for just 1030 seats. Such rates of
applicants are a clear indication of bright future of public universities if they are provided with
good guidance.
 Skilled Teachers:
Most of the faculty members at private universities either possess grad or post-grad degrees from
renowned universities overseas or are visiting faculty members from public universities, though
that may not be the case all the time. For instance, many professors from DU, IBA and BUET
regularly conduct classes at the various departments in private universities in Dhaka. In such
cases, students of private universities are essentially learning the same material from the same
teachers as public university students, or from otherwise qualified teachers who are experts in
their fields. It proves the well production of skillful teachers from our public universities who are
capable of changing the atmosphere of public universities as well.
 Government funding:
There are a total of 33 public universities in Bangladesh. The government is spending a huge
amount of money on the public university students. Expenditure on each student of 33 public
universities has calculated based on the 40th annual report of University Grants Commission
(UGC), Bangladesh. The average cost is always more for science, medical, engineering and
agricultural universities than the general universities. There are total 11 general category public
universities in our country. Let us assume the cost on each student of those universities. The
government is spending the most on Khulna University (KU) among the general category
universities and least on the Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur (BRUR). Let's identify the costs
on general category universities. Khulna University in the 1st position in terms of cost. The
university has 4 thousand and 832 students. The government has spent Tk. 1 lakh 49 thousand
on each student. Dhaka University in the 2nd position in terms of cost. The university has 30
thousand and 834 students. The government has spent Tk. 84 thousand on each student.
Jahangirnagar University in the 3rd position in terms of cost. The university has 14 thousand and
496 students. The government has spent Tk. 82 thousand and 255 on each student. Chittagong
University in the 4th position in terms of cost. The university has 20 thousand and 332 students.
The government has spent Tk. 53 thousand and 364 on each student. Rajshahi University in the
5th position in terms of cost. The university has 33 thousand and 922 students. The government
has spent Tk. 43 thousand and 585 on each student. Islamic University in the 6th position in terms
of cost. The university has 11 thousand and 929 students. The government has spent Tk. 34
thousand and 684 on each student. (eduicon.com)
 Accountability Mechanism
To run universities freely as a center for academic freedom some facilities like conducive
environment for teaching and research, autonomy coupled with accountability etc. are
necessary. In some public universities such as Dhaka University, Rajshahi University, Chittagong
University and Jahangirnagar University, 1973 University Acts introduced the concept of

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autonomy, introduced the Senate and established the principle of collective leadership of the
vice-chancellor in the Syndicate. But the gain proved short lived for various reasons with the
result that during the period 1975-90, the changed tone of politics gave a new set of Acts for the
newer universities. Autonomy, however, in the absence of universities’ own adequate resources,
and because of its sole dependence on the government has always been fragile, in actual terms
(Siddiqui: 1997). Further, it is seen that 1973 Act, provided some autonomy theoretically but the
concept of accountability of administrative personnel and teachers was very much lacking.
Further, neither the chairman nor the Dean who in terms of assigned responsibility, should be
authorities to take note of a teacher’s failure, whatever may be the nature of failure, is not in a
position to play the expected role.
Conclusion:
In many issue-areas, contemporary global governance requires the creation or reform of national
institutions. Effective global governance is dependent on compatible regional neighborhoods and
capable national governments. The public universities of Bangladesh haven’t been at their best
and the government is not the only factor one can blame for failing to ensure global level of
governance in this sector. The necessary reform of the institutions of public sector which are
public universities in this regards hasn’t been followed. The public universities of Bangladesh lost
their dynamism with the passage of time for many reasons. But there are factors which are
mentioned above that can make public universities of Bangladesh world class and ensure better
public welfare through public governance. This will also help our government to ensure global
governance of these institutions of public sector which will eventually develop the lives of the
people in general through greater outcomes.
References:
 Bangladesh University Grants Commission (2006). Strategic Plan for Higher Education in
Bangladesh: 2006-2026, Dhaka.
 Fraser-Moleketi, Geraldine (ed.), and the World We Could Win: Administering Global
Governance, International Institute of Administrative Sciences, OIS Press, 2005.
 Mahmud, Monjur Morshed. (2002). Quality Assurance in Public Universities of
Bangladesh-An Overview. A paper presented in a seminar on “Quality Assurance in Higher
Education in Bangladesh” organized by UGC and held in Dhaka in July 2002
 Siddiqui, Zillur Rahman. (1997). Vision and Revisions: Higher Education in Bangladesh-
1974-1992, Dhaka, University Press Limited.
 Zaman, Fahmida, “Student Politics in Bangladesh”, 27th November, 2014, The Daily Star,
link: http://www.thedailystar.net/student-politics-in-bangladesh-52187
 http://www.eduicon.com/News/Details/5573.html

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