Growth of private university business following “oligopoly” and “SME” approaches: an impact on the concept of university and on society

Abstract

Purpose Universally, university is considered as the apex body which is ethically obliged to present a substantial society. In doing so, universities often innovate dynamic business models and theories. Ideally, the countries whose universities contribute for better and sustainable business growth are the advanced one. However, universities themselves should be the business organisation – an argument is yet to receive attention. Although literature lacks in the area of education business especially university provision, the sector behaves as business entity after the inception of private sector. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the paradigm transformation of university sector and its impact on the society. Design/methodology/approach Given the differentiated nature of research questions, multiple techniques are used to collect the data. However, this research adopts the norms of qualitative methods. Both secondary and primary data are used. While secondary data are collected by University Grants Commission (UGC), primary data are collected through interviews. Findings Findings show that the development of university sector started following monopoly model. More than half a century, the same model was continued. Thereafter, duopoly model was introduced which carried until the inception of private sector. The growth of private sector followed oligopoly model which was further extended to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). These days, society compares university with “diploma mill”, as production of knowledge and civic society is longer than the part of the core business of university. Consequently, compromising with research is to be judged as a threat to overall development that includes business and social development. Originality/value A few studies have been published in the area of private university. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, none covers the oligopoly-ism and SME-ism behaviour of university and its impact on the concept of university and on the society. Therefore, this project aims to understand the norms of university business and its substantial contribution on the social change.

Do Urbanized Socioeconomic Background or Education Programs Support Engineers for Further Advancement?

“…Later, it was upgraded into a polytechnic (Chowdhury & Sarkar, 2018). Following the end of British rule, this institute was transformed into an engineering university and rebranded as East Pakistan University of Engineering and Technology, then in turn renamed Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) following independence in 1971 (Alam, Parvin, Roslan, 2020). The administrative operations also changed as it did not allow polytechnic graduates to enrol (Alam & Forhad, 2020b).…”

“…Newman (1852) saw that the "sole" purpose of the university is to produce "elite leaders" to run a country, while polytechnics should concentrate on producing professionals such as engineers, doctors, agriculturists, and so on. These leaders produced by the universities usually belonged to the socioeconomically privileged cluster or elite (Alam, Parvin, Roslan, 2020). The working class as well as the middle/lower class traditionally procured polytechnic education and were not expected to aim for anything better (Alam & Forhad, 2021).…”

“…The Higher Education of the United States (USHE) challenged the concept of "white-collar job" by introducing engineering-and agriculture-based universities, many of which are known as "land grant" institutions (Alam, Parvin, Roslan, 2020).…”

“…This pragmatic approach initiated by the USHE helped to make obsolete the concept of "white-collar job" by empowering people from the working class and lower middle-class groups. Consequently, the United States achieved much more economic success and social mobility compared to the British system (Alam, Parvin, Roslan, 2020).…”

“…The success of USHE motivated many British former colonies, once they achieved independence, to copy the U.S. system (Alam, Parvin, Roslan, 2020). Unfortunately, in doing so these newly independent colonies introduced engineering and agricultural university programs without changing their colonial era education system (Steln, 2020).…”