It is encouraging that opposition lawmakers in parliament have recently discussed some important issues regarding higher education at our public universities. While pointing to corruption and various kinds of irregularities plaguing the universities—and blaming the government for its failure to control such malpractices—they also made a very important demand: that vice-chancellors (VCs) must not be appointed on political considerations. Instead, the lawmakers suggested that the government appoint true educationists as VCs to improve the overall quality of education.

We believe that the sentiment of the lawmakers is shared by the general public, who send their children to public universities to be educated and guided by honest and competent teachers. Over the past few decades, our public universities have lost their reputation and prestige due to various kinds of corruption, nepotism and anomalies in teacher and staff recruitments, plagiarism, and also due to their controversial process of VC appointments.

Apparently, we do not have any specific rule for the appointment of VCs. In its absence, a teacher's loyalty to—or affiliation with—the ruling party seems to have become the main qualification for someone to hold the top position. An investigative report published by this daily earlier this year found that at least 39 out of 48 VCs of public universities held posts in different pro-government teachers' wings during their career. The report also mentioned that the chances of getting appointed as a VC rose exponentially if the candidate was tagged with the AL-backed Blue panel at Dhaka University, which apparently produced the highest number of VCs for our public universities. 

Thus, the question that naturally arises is: Can these VCs, appointed on political consideration, play their role neutrally for the overall good of a university and its students? The answer is: No. Recent incidents at many of our public universities, including SUST, have proved this quite clearly.

Against this backdrop, there is no alternative to appointing prominent and honest educationists without any political affiliations as VCs, if we want to improve the educational environment and the quality of higher education at our public universities. The education minister, however, said that such honest personalities are not interested in working as VCs and becoming a part of a corrupt system that does not encourage imparting knowledge to students. The government, therefore, should seriously consider the demands and suggestions made by the lawmakers and create an environment where true educationists are encouraged to become VCs and work for building a better educational environment at the public universities.