Curriculum Development in Public Administration in Bangladesh: Lessons from Experience of Others

Abstract

This article examines the process of curriculum development for Public Administration in public universities in Bangladesh and explores the extent to which Bangladesh can learn lessons from others’ experiences, especially from countries in the South Asian region. The article compares and contrasts the curriculum and courses offered by different departments of Public Administration and explores reasons for variations. It also analyses measures adopted for the modernisation of curriculum and identifies factors that are likely to retard the progress towards change and improvement. The article argues that the widespread autonomy that different universities enjoy has become counterproductive, leading to a decline in the standard of education and the politicisation of the governing process in the universities. Everything now weighs in party political terms. This, in turn, causes more harm than good. Bangladesh can try to learn, especially from India’s experiences, how to stress on striking a balance between autonomy to be enjoyed by universities and control to be exercised by the government/University Grants Commission (UGC) to ensure that the practice does not differ much from the ideal.