Home ›› 01 Nov 2022 ›› Opinion
A number of Bangladeshi universities and medical colleges are participating at the international conference to be held at the Crowne Plaza Deira-Dubai Hotel from November 4-6, 2022, that will see the participation of more than 1,000 education experts, academicians and students of UAE seeking higher education in Bangladesh.
Bangladeshi universities, medical, dental and general colleges are currently serving 4.6 million students. With an average annual cost of US$1,000 per year, this translates to a higher education market size of US$4.6 billion in Bangladesh. Bangladesh government has allocated US$8.14 billion (Tk814.49 billion) to education sector in the current financial year ending June 2023, of which US$3.99 billion (Tk399.61 billion) has been allocated for higher education;
More than 30 million students are groomed by the country’s education sector every year – making it one of the largest education services industries in the world.
Bangladesh, which hosts one of the largest education sectors in the world with 163 universities, 115 medical colleges and more than 2,500 general and specialised colleges, is now ready to attract international students and offer good quality cost-effective education to the students living in the Middle East.
Bangladesh, which used to be an exporter of students to major education destinations such as UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Malaysia and India a few years ago, has now also become an importer of students from a number of African, Middle Eastern and South Asian countries – thanks to the good quality education provided to students at a very affordable price.
Although the country still remains a net exporter of students, the accelerating number of international students enrolling into Bangladeshi universities and medical colleges in recent years will soon make the country a net importer of student that will be a major source of foreign currency in the coming years.
“Bangladesh is soon going to emerge as an alternative higher education destination with thousands of foreign students already studying in various universities and medical colleges in Bangladesh, that is adding to the growing remittance inflow in to the country,” Mohibul Hassan Chowdhury, Deputy Education Minister of Bangladesh, says, who is one of the key speakers in the Dubai meet, along with Education minister Dr Deepu Moni MP and UGC member Dr Biswajit Chanda. “Bangladesh Education Forum will strengthen the country’s reputation as an alternative destination for good quality and cost-effective education, help re-position Bangladesh in the global education map and boost education tourism,” he adds.
The number of middle income and affluent Bangladeshis will grow at a rate of more than 10 percent annually and increase from 12 million in 2015 to 34 million by 2025, which will also help student migration and help increase the education tourism. However, continuous upgradation of higher education standards in Bangladesh can stem exodus of students in large numbers and create gainful learning opportunities within the nation, at least at the graduation level, after school. More than two million students worldwide study in countries other than their own country. The global educational tourism market is predicted to reach a value of US$1.94 trillion by 2031, with a robust Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of over 17.2 percent, according to reports. Bangladesh can surely emerge as a destination of good quality higher education at an affordable cost for children of non-resident Bangladeshis, from anywhere in the world, apart from many South and Central Asian and African students, who want quality at an affordable cost.
Dr Kazi Anis Ahmed, General Secretary of APUB, says, “Bangladeshi universities offer the most cost-competitive higher education in the world, without compromising the quality. English is the medium of instruction, making it more attractive for international students. Almost all the universities and medical colleges offer very good quality education – something that is gradually being recognised by the global community – slowly but surely as the number of foreign students in Bangladesh is growing fast.”
Bangladesh Education Forum will also cater to the large Bangladeshi diaspora living in the Gulf countries. There is a direct captive market of the large Non-Resident Bangladeshi (NRB) community, for Bangladeshi universities and medical colleges to explore. More than 50,000 Bangladeshi families live in the UAE among the 1.2 million NRB population in the UAE.
Each of the 50,000 families have more than two children – making Bangladesh student community size to at least 100,000. If they are split into 12 grades, one would find than more than 8,000 students seek higher education every year, after finishing 12th Grade. Even if 25 per cent might pursue higher studies in USA, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Germany and East European countries, that still leaves a potential market of 6,000 Bangladeshi students per year to explore and benefit from. Most NRB families find it difficult to reach out to and secure admission in the Universities and Medical Colleges in Bangladesh due to their long absence from the country, therefore not knowing how things work. The cost of higher education in Bangladesh is between 40-60 percent cheaper, while the average cost of an MBBS degree is around US$40,000 – making Bangladesh very attractive for international students.
However, the ambitious universities of Bangladesh will need to aggressively pursue international students living in the GCC countries and give them a cost-effective and high-quality alternative that will help the families educate their children with lesser budget, if they want to take advantage of the current scenario.
Also, the medium of instruction in the best universities of Bangladesh seeking global students will need to be strictly English (with Bangla as a lingua franca otherwise, for sure). There need to be facilities of good quality stay and food, secure environment with large green campuses, healthcare facilities at length and faculty drawn in from around the world with global exposure and practices. Education, which is techno-savvy in the fourth industrial revolution technologies, which integrates the traditional with the modern, the physical with the digital and the experiential, can only draw global attention. All higher learning, engineering or social sciences, sciences or commerce, even in medical domain, today needs to integrate basic elements of artificial intelligence and machine learning, big data and data analytics, cloud computing, use of AR-VR-XR, metaverse, internet of things, et al. All higher education strictly needs blended learning, towards which the University Grants Commission has taken some major steps during the pandemic, and the Bangladesh government is contemplating a policy declaration.
However, the signs are good, but the progress is still below par.
Also, in tune with what developed nations like US, UK or Australia have been doing for long, and what developing nations like India and South Africa have just started doing, Bangladesh needs to encourage its most ambitious and quality-conscious universities to go beyond the national borders and open up campuses in less developed and developing nations both as a business and as a quality socio-economic contribution towards global progress of learning. Five decades are gone, and it’s a good time to open up the frontiers of higher education to welcome the new and go beyond the known territories.
The writer is Executive Director of International Online University (iou.ac) and a strategic adviser to two South Asian universities.
He can be contacted at [email protected]
