After more than forty years with the higher education system in Bangladesh, I have witnessed its progress with both trepidation and hope: trepidation because the journey has not always been smooth on a path strewn with challenges, policy reversals, political control, uninspiring leadership, and a disconnect with the larger goal of promoting quality education. Hope stems from encouraging new ideas for an integrated approach, curriculum reform, budget enhancement, teacher training, technology integration, and research, all providing strong optimism for the future. With good policy, strong support, enlightened leadership, adequate resources, a willingness to break free from the past, and nurturing strong partnerships, the system can unlock its full potential to inspire students – igniting their curiosity, fostering critical thinking, embarking on discovery, and nurturing a lifelong love of learning. Expanding upon these ideas holds great promise for a journey of educational excellence.
A significant marker has been Bangladesh’s struggle to prioritize research in the universities – a critical but seriously neglected domain. In today’s fast-evolving global landscape, shaped by fiercely competitive knowledge economies, demographic shifts, technological disruption, the intrusion of globalization, economic uncertainties and political realignments, the emphasis on research continues to be cavalier, uninspiring, and lackluster. While ambitious goals have been stated to advance research, weak governance and poor implementation stall progress. In this context I examine the role of research universities, not just as institutions of learning but as cornerstones of self-reliance, essential for charting a nation’s future free from intellectual, and other forms of dependence. Such dependencies pave the way for domination and exploitation by external forces.
This book was written with two main objectives: First, I wanted to understand and delineate the contours of what it might take for Bangladesh (and similar countries) to become research enabled and empowered, integrating it formally with national strategy to alleviate dependence on other countries and resist exploitation. Second, I wanted to share my ideas, especially with those in the Global South, who ought to take the research agenda forward – faculty, administrators, policy makers, political leaders, as well as related organizations, institutions, and public bodies – to serve as a platform for critical conversations to accord research more influence in national affairs while benefiting its many constituencies. While there is no single approach to promoting research in the universities, this book attempts to initiate and invigorate discussions on how to build a knowledge-driven nation pragmatically through its
In 2014, when I was invited to lead BRAC University in Bangladesh, I began to see more closely the disarray in the education space. Because of my interest in research, I delved deeply into the collective culture of research in Bangladesh’s public and private universities. This curiosity was driven by the simple fact that during my decades-long academic evolution, I began to recognize the powerful role that research plays in the global arena, solving challenging problems, transforming outmoded thinking, and providing asymmetric strength to those countries that invest in and possess knowledge. Commitment to research has indeed enabled the West to become immensely powerful, enabling it to dominate discourse, narratives, politics, and markets through the asymmetric influence that knowledge accords. Such influence has enabled the West to advance its interests at palpable costs to other nations. It is not difficult to discern in this domination an unspoken desire to control and shape other nations through a subtle and unspoken knowledge-driven colonial project. In the past few decades, nations in the East have begun to wrest back knowledge supremacy: they seem to be gaining ground.
With more universities becoming research enabled globally, I wanted to see a few similar institutions in Bangladesh engaging in world-class research to develop problem solving capacity, foster institutional prestige, and build a self-reliant nation, free from unnecessary dependence on other nations. I also saw, first-hand, the potential of research to inspire and unite a nation when BRAC University launched Bangladesh’s first nanosatellite in collaboration with Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan. That single event, a tiny step compared to advancements in research in the Western world, captivated a large segment of the media and the people of Bangladesh in an unmistakable demonstration of elation and excitement. It was clear that research could serve multiple purposes.
During my conversations across academia, it was also apparent that the role, value, and need for research is acknowledged in Bangladesh but not well-understood. For many, it was seen primarily as a means for promotion, not as a career goal to build a distinct reputation as an academic in a defined area of inquiry, nor as a means to address the numerous challenges facing the nation. The role of research in advancing knowledge and nation-building never really went past fancy proclamations, especially among the academics. There was also an actively anti-research group that downplayed the importance of research while they spent time on petty politics or trivial projects for their own benefit, but with little benefit to either their institution or society.
As editor of the Journal of Bangladesh Studies (1999–2020), I wrote an editorial in 2003 about a baffling and worrisome situation in the country’s academic institutions: the lack of a research culture. Noting that the intellectual community was interested in building scholarly identities (professoriates), their work simply did not measure up. The “academic” journals published in Bangladesh lacked rigor and had no international standing, the libraries lacked the work of local scholars, the universities had meager (or no) budgets to build a viable academic research infrastructure, and there was a plethora of related constraints that did not give research much of a chance to flourish. Not much has changed since then.
Willem Van Schendel corroborated my contention much later in his piece, “Blind spots and biases in Bangladesh Studies” (2019), about research in Bangladesh, stating that Bangladesh lacked visibility as a scholarly society, with lackluster contributions to academic discussions in the social sciences and the humanities. He concluded that “Bangladesh Studies is still a relatively disjointed and poorly institutionalized field of knowledge production.”
In 2016, The University Grants Commission, Bangladesh, invited me to lead the segment on research for the “Strategic Plan for Higher Education in Bangladesh: 2018–2030.” Delving deep, our team uncovered many issues standing in the way of research that persisted from years past (details in Chapter 3). In the plan document, we shared two ideas to advance research in meaningful ways:
- –Create a National Research Council, similar to the U.S. National Science Foundation, to guide, coordinate, and ramp up both basic and applied research relevant for national advancement.
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Build a few “research universities” or “flagship universities” (in the sciences, engineering, and social sciences) to confer MA/MSc, M.Phil, and PhD degrees linked to national needs and establish high-quality graduate programs with meaningful research impact.
Eight years henceforth, the dial has hardly moved. It was as if the university community was invited to the educational planning process merely to be showcased and registered, but their ideas shelved by some unseen force to achieve other unrevealed goals. Amidst this lamentable state of affairs, the implications for the advancement of research are troubling, to say the least.
The Achilles Heel, unfortunately, is the serious disregard for research, not just by academia itself, but by other entities as well: the government, leading industry sectors, the media, and civil society – all clamoring for research in higher education, but with few elegant ideas of their own and little involvement or investment. So evident is the malaise, the lack of good policy for research, the lack of coordinated goals and programs, and so utterly sidelined are the academics from charting a course for research, that the idea of building a knowledge society and its ability to empower the population remains seriously debilitated. I ponder sometimes: Who really is in charge of the country’s education system? Is there any external influence to keep Bangladesh subjugated?
For lack of better expression, the system appears to be run by a carnival of sycophants and inept people occupying important positions – not out of a genuine desire to advance education, but rather to serve their own interests and agendas: the outcomes they have achieved says it all! Driven by personal motives and short-sighted pursuits, they have only contributed to a culture of mediocrity and sluggishness, while genuine prospects of progress and innovation have made little headway.
At the same time other institutions in Asia, established much later than Bangladesh’s elite universities, have made major strides with many of them finding a place in the distinguished 100–200 global/Asian rankings. Bangladesh’s elite institutions could not find a prominent place even in South Asian rankings!
With this background in perspective, and the tremendous potential of a knowledge economy that Bangladesh (and other developing countries) needs to develop and harness, despite having the basic facilities and a small complement of competent academic staff, I wanted to probe the prospects of strengthening research in higher education in Bangladesh. This book, therefore, explores what we can learn from the situation on the ground, past mistakes, and the experiences of other Asian universities that made their way into the dynamic world of research. Using Bangladesh as a case study, I suggest
Without robust investment in research and a supporting infrastructure, as well as a supportive policy regime, deep institutional commitment, collaborative research, ethical practices, and a concerted effort to elevate the status and importance of research within a vibrant educational ecosystem, nurturing a culture of rigorous inquiry and discovery will not materialize. Under the circumstances, Bangladesh risks falling further behind in the global knowledge hierarchy. It is imperative, therefore, that policymakers, educators, and stakeholders prioritize research as a strategic imperative and allocate resources to enable research to thrive. Only through a renewed commitment to the pursuit of knowledge can Bangladesh (and other developing countries in similar circumstances) hope to overcome the challenges confronting the education system and chart a course to bring research back on track. That means Bangladesh needs to build a few robust, highly capable, and enlightened research universities and an institutional mechanism (like the National Science Foundation in the USA or the Chinese Academy of Science) to oversee and guide the scope, quality, and quantity of research.
While research is still a buzzword, not an active concept, it is my sense that universities in Bangladesh are warming up in their aspirations to become recognized global knowledge producers. To that end, I hope this book will provide some groundwork and direction for these universities, as well as the ecosystem in which they are embedded, to incorporate research more firmly in their overall strategic vision and nurture locally relevant knowledge frontiers.
Chapter 1 sets the stage for the book. It begins with an observation: How universities (backed by their respective governments) across the world are in a race to break new ground in uncharted areas of discovery and be recognized prominently by the global rating agencies such as THE and QS. Next, the chapter sets up two lenses through which research ought to be looked at: dependence theory and political economy theory. From the Covid 19 experience, it has become starkly clear that nations cannot fully depend on essential products of research from other nations (e.g., vaccines) especially at critical junctures, nor do they have access to such knowledge that is fiercely guarded as intellectual property by several watchdog institutions. This control over knowledge has been used as a tool implement and sustain domination over other nations – a subtle but palpable colonial project. Harnessing knowledge and pursuing the “imperative of research” is thus no longer academic to protect, preserve, and advance national interests.
Chapter 2 provides a quick tour of the university ranking agencies and the criteria they use that causes euphoria or despair among the world’s universities in their race to the top. It then takes a deeper look at the strategies developed and the resource commitments made by two East Asian and two Southeast Asian countries that have helped them rise in stature and rank as knowledge producers: China, South Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia. The path each took, the time and resources they committed, and the structures they designed to facilitate research provides useful insights for aspiring developing countries to determine their own research agendas, appropriate for their particular circumstances. The chapter also steps back to ponder whether the ranking game driving the race to the top is another ruse, a distraction, for countries rising in economic prominence to pursue rank rather than knowledge tracks critical to their circumstances.
Chapter 3 provides an in-depth analysis of Bangladesh (based on my years of involvement with higher education there) to assess the hurdles its universities encounter in facilitating research that must be overcome to rise as recognized research institutions. The two main segments in this chapter focus on the challenges that academics face in knowledge production and the difficulties endured by graduate students (MA, MPhil, and PhD candidates) who ought to play a more prominent role in taking research forward. Other developing countries may have comparable challenges that also need attention. However, their circumstances are often different (population dynamics, economic growth, resource allocation priorities of the government, political maturity, etc.) that will require adapting their strategies and incorporating research as a vital component of higher education to impact social, political, technological, and economic development.
Chapter 4 addresses important structural issues. For example, will research universities be in the private or public sector; will they be intensely research
Chapter 5 draws attention to the role of selected macroenvironmental factors that can influence the operations and performance of a research university. If these forces conspire against the universities, the creativity of academic leaders, organizational policy, participative decision-making and the gamut of other efficacy practices may not suffice to sustain research. In strategic management parlance, it is important to engage in environmental scanning to enable the research universities to attain fit. Without such fit, organizational action to facilitate research will suffer. This chapter envisions the organic links between the macro, meso, and the microenvironments as a framework for analysis. In particular, it sheds light on how the macroenvironmental forces of culture, politics, economy, social demand for knowledge, legal issues, and technology are likely to influence research in the universities. It is important to note that the macroenvironment will affect “all” [research] universities simultaneously; while it will affect the universities directly, it can also work through the meso environment which will moderate its effects.
Chapter 6 recognizes the powerful role of external actors in the meso environment that provide resources to the research university. The dynamics of dependence confer enormous economic and social power to these actors whose decisions often mediate and moderate organizational action. Instead of individual universities negotiating with these bodies in a somewhat disorganized or disjointed fashion, and from a weaker position, this chapter calls for an overarching body to coordinate the flow of resources to the universities aligned with national interests. The role of this body is to serve as an advocate for the research universities, guide them, and provide oversight functions to introduce and maintain professional research standards and practices in the universities. The establishment of a National Research Council (NRC), modelled after the National Science Foundation in the United States, can advance Bangladesh’s research agenda most effectively. While the role and structure for the NRC in this chapter is proposed for Bangladesh, its features are easy to emulate and adapt as needed by other developing countries.
Chapter 8 addresses the microenvironment, focusing on key aspects of managing the research universities, taking into consideration both macro and meso environmental forces. From being mission-driven and with appropriate leadership in place, I propose adopting the 7Ps framework – purpose, programs, people, policies, partnerships, pennies, and preservation – to take the research agenda forward. The chapter also elaborates on the core human resource management practices critical to academia: recruitment policy, capacity development, motivation, performance evaluation, and compensation/rewards. An ingrained authoritarian culture of running the higher education system is also seen as the bane of academic advancement, debilitating creativity and innovation, while preventing many universities from achieving their potential. Elements such as clear goals, positive group climate, mentoring, rewards, and related practices are discussed for the research universities to imbue. Trust-based engagement and autonomy are additional features that are generally missing in the universities in Bangladesh. Unless these features are integrated in otherwise well-endowed universities, the goal of building world class research universities may not materialize.
Chapter 9 examines how quality and quality assurance of research is to be ensured. In this matter, the big players in global research are already ahead, with compliance protocols. During my tenure as Vice Chancellor, I was surprised to note that basic issues such as institutional review (IRB), ethical concerns, plagiarism policies, intellectual property policies, access to information, as well as publication and dissemination of research are not accorded the seriousness they deserve by the public and private universities. While discussing these issues, I have relied on sharing publicly available policies, with adaptations, instead of trying to write them from scratch.
Chapter 10 takes a stab at the priorities for Bangladesh if it wishes to pursue a knowledge driven strategy of economic advancement by relying, at least partly, on “designated” research universities to provide leadership in a few strategic/niche areas. Political vision and commitment are fundamental to these priorities. For long the agenda concerning the universities has been for
Hopefully, the thinking in this book will reach the corridors of power where policies are set and resource allocation decisions made. Establishing a few “flagship” research universities for starters is an immediate need. This idea has gained some traction among the powers that be, and budgets may have been approved to install one or two such universities. My personal advocacy for a National Research Council (NRC), mandated to coordinate and manage resources centrally, but with full participation of the universities, also resonated in the policy circles with plans to establish the Council. But on August 5, 2024 the political landscape took a dramatic turn and the idea of a NRC became uncertain.
If the ideas expressed in this book provoke debate, and if policy makers take a closer look at some of the ideas, the book will have served a useful purpose. While I urge the government to build research universities, a few specialized ones at the beginning, other priorities in higher education must also be pursued simultaneously – developing living curricula to fit with the times, instilling appropriate pedagogies, developing faculty capacity in teaching and research, building academic infrastructure (including technology), teaching students to think and solve problems (instead of relying on rote learning), improving the state of governance, ensuring that student capacities fit employers’ needs, etc.
For Bangladesh, ranking is not the be-all and end-all of a research-focused university. However, while the competition at the top is fierce, if a few of them earn a place in the Times Higher Education rankings in the top 500 in the next