National University Completes 34 Years: Nearly 4 Million Students Studying at 2,318 Colleges

The National University has completed 34 years, playing a major role in expanding access to higher education and in the integrated management of college education in Bangladesh. Its founding anniversary falls today, Wednesday, October 21.

The university was established in 1992: the National Parliament passed Act No. 37 on October 20 that year, and it was founded the next day through a gazette notification.

Founded under then Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, the university has from the start played an important role in creating higher-education opportunities for students in the country's remote areas.

Its contribution is considered especially notable for young people from middle-class, lower-middle-class and marginalised families — by bringing district and upazila colleges under one umbrella, it has taken higher education to the doorsteps of ordinary families.

Taiyeba Tasnim Siraj, acting director of the university's public relations office, said nearly 4 million students are currently studying at 2,318 colleges and institutions under the National University.

Those institutions employ more than 100,000 teachers. About 70 percent of the country's higher education is delivered under this university — making it, by numbers, the largest structure in the national higher-education system.

More than 10 million students have earned bachelor's degrees under the university. Many of them are contributing at home and abroad in education, administration, business, industry, technology and social development.

The university says it is now working to modernise its curricula to keep pace with a changing world and to meet the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Alongside that, work continues on expanding teacher training, eliminating session backlog and widening research opportunities — session jams have long been a chief grievance of its students, so progress here draws close attention.

A special supplement has been published to mark the founding anniversary.

Banners have also been hung at the main gates and buildings of the main campus and the city office, and prayers have been arranged at the central mosque.

In 34 years the National University has become the principal vehicle of mass higher education in the country. How far its announced curriculum and session-backlog initiatives are implemented will shape the success of its next chapter.