Tertiary Level Education

Education for all is a global goal which emphasizes on providing universal access to primary education. Consequently, international attention tends to focus more on primary education rather than the higher modes of education, even though tertiary level plays an increasingly important role in human, social and economic development (Sutton, 1998; Escrigas, 2008).

Bangladesh has made tremendous progress in ensuring primary education for its people. Research shows that net enrollment in primary education in Bangladesh is 97.9% (Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, 2015), which almost nearing the SDG-4 target of 100%. Higher level education, however, remains out of reach for a large portion of the population.

Quality tertiary level education

An excess supply of university degree holders appears to be a serious issue for Bangladesh, as the economy cannot absorb all graduates, leaving many unemployed. The scenario is becoming further complicated as many of these university-graduate students lack the qualities and skills the job market demands. As employability is often primarily determined by the supply and demand of qualified graduates in the job market, it is necessary to consider the market’s demands while designing the tertiary level academic curriculum. Furthermore, there is little evidence-based research on tertiary level education, possibly because education-related research in Bangladesh is mostly focused on primary and secondary education level.

The first problem in confronting higher education is that its purpose is difficult to articulate. (Mazumder, Karim and Bhuiyan, 2012). Although the general assumption is advancement of learning, critical thinking abilities (Manarin, Carey, Rathburn and Ryland, 2015) and gainful employment are also among the core factors (Mazumder et al., 2012). Considering employability as a core focus, bridging the gap between tertiary education and job market demands is of paramount importance (EIU- BC,

One interesting factor is that all employer categories prefer few years of experience for entry level jobs. This highlights a key demand and supply gap for the universities to work on, as fresh university graduates often do not have full-time work experiences, yet the job market expects otherwise. Universities thus have a role to play in ensuring their graduates are adequately equipped with not only the skills, but also relevant working experience by the time they are ready to join the market. This can be done by adding a semester-length internship period to the curriculum and periodical 1-month long internships during semester