Why do students want to leave Bangladesh?

A recent report published in this paper pointed out how the number of Bangladeshi students going abroad has trebled over the last 15 years despite the rise in the number of homegrown universities. The key argument focuses on the lack of quality education at home, prompting those who could afford or find external funding to pursue higher education abroad. The report identifies some push factors, but denies some pull factors behind such mobility.

Destination nations are strategically targeting countries like Bangladesh, which has shown significant economic growth in the last two decades. There is a growing middle class in this eighth-most populous country in the world, where 18.56 percent of the people are in the 15-24 age group. International recruiters have not failed to notice the market determined by demand for education and global career aspirations. As the World Bank points out, "the overall quality of the country's human capital is low," and only four percent of workers have studied beyond their secondary schools, meaning "Bangladesh's workforce of 87 million is largely undereducated."

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Do we need branches of foreign universities?

Shouldn't we then be happy that our students are taking the opportunity to benefit from the education systems abroad? At least such movement among our students promises better opportunities, higher salaries, improved working conditions, or access to advanced research and technology. Students, upon completion of their degrees overseas, can bring back knowledge, skills and networks that benefit their home countries to counterbalance the fear of brain drain. But that is all in theory. The reality is that "student migration is increasingly being taken as a route for long-term emigration, sometimes resulting in irregular migration," according to an official of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Some of the other factors beyond individual decisions to use the education route involve political instability, lack of job opportunities, inadequate infrastructure, and unfavourable economic conditions in the home countries.

The push factors are well-understood. But why is the pull from foreign countries so strong? The simple answer is revenue. In 2020-21, international students pumped 42 billion pounds into the UK economy. Without international students, most UK universities will run on a deficit budget. "International students pay between £10,000 and £38,000 a year – the highest fees in the world – and are in effect super-taxing their own, often poor, countries to cross-subsidize UK students" (The Guardian). Against each local student, there are five foreign students in the UK. After Brexit, the flow of European students has plummeted, and there are new initiatives to bring in students from South Asia and Africa, among other places.

There has to be a national strategy. Identify the areas in which we want our human capital to be trained abroad. Introduce a national policy scheme to send our talented individuals to institutions that have gone through a rigorous credential check. We need to protect the outbound students from various predators and visa colleges that exploit them. We need to negotiate with foreign missions to increase scholarships and funding opportunities based on merit. If our counterparts can set their nationalist agenda first, we need to do the same!

On the other side of the pond, nearly one million international students who attended US institutions contributed $33.8 billion to the country's economy and created more than 335,000 jobs in 2020-21. The same year, international students contributed over 22.3 billion dollars to the Canadian economy – greater than exports of auto parts, lumber, or aircraft. There is a straightforward agenda guiding all of the posh job or education fairs that you see organised by foreign cultural missions and their local agents: the creation of a supply chain of students to foster their national growth.

Their agenda, however, is sugar-coated with the business mantra of "your perspective." You go abroad because the return on investment is higher. A typical MBA degree in Canada will cost you 95,000 Canadian dollars, leading to a salary of 100,000 dollars per year. It is an investment for your future as it enhances career opportunities and has the potential for higher earnings. The success of diaspora communities will further influence the decision to study abroad. This feeling is rampant among the elite class, most of whom have studied in English medium schools and feel left out by the mainstream system.

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How can Bangladesh turn on its ‘brain gain’?

The rosy picture hides the fact that many of these international students are exploited as cheap labour. Not all students going abroad have the means to sustain full fees and living expenses. These students are hired with a minimum or below-par wage. Students often get stuck in a cycle of low-paid work and find it difficult to transition into more stable and better-paying career paths after completing their education. This perpetuates social and economic inequities, as students from disadvantaged backgrounds might be disproportionately affected, because they do not have the financial cushion to work for low wages without compromising their well-being. There was a worrying report of rising mental health and suicide rates among international students in Canada in recent times. Many of the students leave their parents in a debt trap while pursuing their international dream.

The official figure of Bangladeshi students going abroad last year was in the vicinity of 50,000. The sad reality is that our local institutions are failing to retain some of our better students who are good enough to be enrolled in world-class universities. Apart from a few public and private universities, the quality of higher education is nothing to write home about. So how do we deal with this growing trend where not only our young ones, but also our hard-earned money is going abroad?

There has to be a national strategy. Identify the areas in which we want our human capital to be trained abroad. Introduce a national policy scheme to send our talented individuals to institutions that have gone through a rigorous credential check. We need to protect the outbound students from various predators and visa colleges that exploit them. We need to negotiate with foreign missions to increase scholarships and funding opportunities based on merit. If our counterparts can set their nationalist agenda first, we need to do the same! And, above all, we need to improve the quality of our educational institutions at all levels.

Dr Shamsad Mortuza is a professor of English at Dhaka University.