THE Dhaka declaration that the South Asian regional conference on the state of higher education and future pathways adopted at the conclusion of the three-day event on January 15 pledges the formation of an inclusive, resilient, innovative and globally accepted higher education system for South Asian countries. Local and foreign educationists, experts and delegates taking part in the conference that the University Grants Commission has organised have said that meaningful and sustained transformation would require continued political commitment, strong institutional leadership, effective regional cooperation and collective action involving stakeholders to make all this happen. The conference, which the Bangladesh government and the World Bank funded, is meant to take higher education to a new height and strengthen the network of higher education commissions of the member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. What is good about this is that the conference and the resultant declaration, with promises for effective higher education, came about at a time when Bangladesh authorities are set to make a law, the Bangladesh Higher Education Commission Ordinance 2025, to replace the University Grants Commission, largely viewed as a paper tiger, with the Higher Education Commission, afforded more autonomy under the head of the state.
The Dhaka Declaration is said to have created a common vision and put forth an action-oriented road map for the transformation of higher education in South Asia, thereby in Bangladesh. The declaration suggests that higher education across South Asia faces common and interconnected challenges such as governance issues and quality assurance gaps, limited regional collaboration, the need for global recognition, growing demand for access, demographic expansion, resource scarcity, persistent gender and inclusion gaps, limited research capacity and innovation, and weak alignment between skills and market needs, the digital divide and big data colonisation. But the region also possesses significant strengths such as a dynamic youth population, expanding university networks, emerging digital capabilities and shared aspirations for cooperation and mutual learning. The declaration, which recognises higher education as an important part of human security, a public good and a strategic sector for national investments, has, therefore, set some strategic commitments and a way forward based on the challenges and the promises. The University Grants Commission has been known to be too weak to act to discipline tertiary education, be it in the public or the private sector. With significant regulatory and quality assurance powers, the absence of which the Grants Commission has been mired in, it is expected that the Higher Education Commission that would be forthcoming would break free of all such weaknesses.
Whilst the transition is promising, the authorities should ensure that the changes do not remain confined to renaming. The functioning should also change.
