Factors Affecting Higher Education Quality in Bangladesh: An Attempt to Improve Higher Education Quality in Bangladesh through HEQEP.

To meet the globalization challenges raising higher education quality to the world standard is essential. Because Economic Factors, An Era of Competition, Demographic Realities, lack of infrastectural development ,Governmental Political and Legal Challenges, Religious Factors, internal conflicts among educational institutions, corruption etc affect quality of higher education in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Govt. has taken initiatives to develop the quality of tertiary education. Govt. plans to prepare university graduates in such way that they can successfully compete in the context of international knowledge society. The Government prepared a Higher Education Strategic Plan 2006-26, which was fully homegrown with participation of front-line academics from both public and private universities and representatives from think-tanks and the private sector. Accordingly, the Ministry of Education, with the assistance of the World Bank, has undertaken a Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project (HEQEP). The project aims at improving the quality of teaching-learning and research capabilities of the tertiary education institutions through encouraging both innovation and accountability and by enhancing the technical and institutional capacity of the higher education sector. he Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project (HEQEP) will comprise of the following 4 (four) components: (i) promotion of academic innovation in teaching-learning and research through an Academic Innovation Fun (AIF) allocating funds on a competitive basis to public and private universities; (ii) institutional capacity building at the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the universities; (iii) connectivity capacity building for universities and research centers through the development of the Bangladesh Research and Education Network (BdREN) ; and (iv) support to the operation of the project implementation unit. The University Grants Commission of Bangladesh is the implementing agency of the project. A HEQEP Unit has been established in UGC for implementation, management, monitoring and evaluation of the activities.