Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW Vol. 5 Num 8 Fri. June 04, 2004       Letters to Editor Can academia fulfil... Z Islam, Monipuripara, Dhaka A write up by Dr. Andaleeb on the above mentioned topic (DS: 30 May 2004) is truly time befitting. His assertion that the universities are not "designed merely to manufacture graduates on mass scale, often based upon borrowed, context-less and ineffective education" is reflective of the state of affairs in our universities- both public and private. Universities are supposed to be the "centre of excellence" providing intellectual leadership to the nation but if the teachers don't even take their classes regularly what can be expected from them? It is seen that most of the senior teachers in our public universities seldom go to the classes, thereby contaminating the juniors. Their track record of research work is also deplorable, thus losing the moral grounds to lead the nation. If we take audit of the number of peer reviewed publication per teacher per year than we will be shocked. In the overseas universities, a teacher's appointment and tenure depend solely on his annual refereed publication output ­ after all that is the measure of his continuing education. One or two reviewed publication per year from a teacher is not a big asking from a person whose job is to study and teach. With this yard stick our general universities may at best be termed as grand 'adda' clubs and the technical universities are no more than vocational institutes. In this situation can academia really fulfil national aspiration?