The World Bank has pioneered the concept of “private” in developing countries with the aim of creating economic and social sustainability since the 1990s. This study examines private universities by focusing on the accountability framework in Bangladesh. Using a multi-method approach (a survey of 1,046 students from all 52 universities in the country and policy documents from 1992-2014), the study reveals that weak macro accountability (specifically, a vague regulatory framework, lack of enforcement, government leniency, and corruption) is a contributing factor in the unsuccessful drive for higher growth of private higher education institutions (HEIs). The study also raises a question on the success of the Washington Consensus in a developing country. The findings demonstrate that urgent attention is required from the Bangladesh government and donor agencies (The World Bank, the UNESCO, and the International Monetary Fund [IMF]).
AcarM.GuoC.YangK. (2008). Accountability when hierarchical authority is absent views from public-private partnership practitioners. The American Review of Public Administration, 38, 3-23.
2.
Al’AbriK. (2011). The impact of globalization on education policy of developing countries: Oman as an example. Literacy Information and Computer Education Journal, 2, 491-502.
3.
AlamG. M. (2009). Can governance and regulatory control ensure private higher education as business or public goods in Bangladesh?African Journal of Business Management, 3, 890-906.
4.
AlamM.HaqueS. (2004). Private higher education in Bangladesh. In VargheseN. V. (Ed.), Private higher education (pp. 1-53). United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, International Institute of Educational Planning (IIEP), Paris.
5.
AlamM.HaqueS.SiddiqueS. F. (2007). Private higher education in Bangladesh. Paris, France: International Institute for Educational Planning.
6.
Al-SamarraiB. (2008). Governance and education inequality in Bangladesh (Paper commissioned for the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2009, Overcoming Inequality: Why governance matters). Washington, DC: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
7.
AltbachP. (1999). Private higher education: Themes and variation in comparative perspective. Prospects, 24, 311-323.
8.
AltbachP.TeferraD. (2004). African higher education: Challenges for the 21st century. Higher Education, 47, 21-50.
9.
AmaralA.TeixeiraP. (2000). The rise and fall of the private sector in Portuguese higher education. Higher Education Policy, 13, 245-266.
10.
BabaiD. (1988). The World Bank and the IMF: Rolling back the state or backing its role. In VernonR. (Ed.), The promise of privatization: A challenge for American foreign policy (pp. 254-275). New York, NY: Council on Foreign Relations Books.
11.
BallS. J. (2007). Education plc: Understanding private sector participation in public sector education. New York, NY: Routledge.
12.
BallS. J. (2009). Privatising education, privatising education policy, privatising educational research: Network governance and the “competition state.”Journal of Education Policy, 24, 83-99.
13.
Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information & Statistics. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.banbeis.gov.bd/
14.
Bangladesh Open University Act. (1992). Act No. 38 of 1992. 21October1992.
15.
BanyaK. (2001). Are private universities the solution to the higher education crisis in sub-Saharan Africa?Higher Education Policy, 14, 161-174.
16.
BattaglioR. P. (2009). Privatization and citizen preferences: A cross-national analysis of demand for private versus public provision of services in three industries. Administration & Society, 41, 38-66.
17.
BennellP. (1996). Using and abusing rates of return. International Journal of Educational Development, 16, 235-248.
18.
BennettA.BraumoellerB. (2006). Where the model frequently meets the road: Combining statistical, formal, and case study methods (Working paper). Washington, DC: Departments of Government, Georgetown University.
19.
BiestaG. (2004). Education, accountability, and the ethical demand: Can the democratic potential of accountability be regained?Educational Theory, 54, 233-250.
20.
BoerH.GoedegebuureL. (2007). Modern governance and codes of conduct in Dutch higher education. Higher Education Research & Development, 26, 45-55.
21.
BonalX. (2002). Plus ca change . . . the World Bank global education policy and the post Washington Consensus. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 12, 3-22.
22.
BovensM. (1998). The quest for responsibility: Accountability and citizenship in complex organisations. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
23.
BovensM.GoodinR. E.SchillemansT. (2014). The Oxford handbook of public accountability. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
24.
BovensM. A. P. (2005). Public accountability. In FerlieE.LynneL.PollittC. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of public management (pp. 182-208). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
25.
BøyumS. (2014). Fairness in education—A normative analysis of OECD policy documents. Journal of Education Policy, 29, 856-870.
26.
BrymanA.BellE. (2007). Business research methods. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
27.
BrymanA.CramerD. (1997). Quantitative data analysis with SPSS for Windows. London, England: Routledge.
28.
Certificate business in private universities: What we should do. (2014, July3). The Daily Observer.
29.
CollinsC. S.RhoadsR. A. (2008). The World Bank and higher education in the developing world: The cases of Uganda and Thailand. In BakerD. P.WisemanA. W. (Eds.), The worldwide transformation of higher education (International Perspectives on Education and Society) (Vol. 9, pp. 177-221). London, UK: Emerald Group.
30.
CookP. (1997). Privatization, public enterprise reform and the World Bank: Has Bureaucrats. Journal of International Development, 9, 888-897.
31.
CookP.KirkpatrickC. (1995). The distributional impact of privatization in developing countries: Who gets what and why? In RamanadhamV. V. (Ed.), Privatization and equity (pp. 35-48). London, England: Routledge.
32.
CramerC. (1999). Privatisation and the post-Washington consensus: Between the lab and the real world? (Centre for Development Policy & Research (CDPR) Discussion Paper 0799). London, England: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
33.
CronbachL. J. (1951). Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika, 16, 97-334.
34.
DeanM. (1999). Governmentality: Power and rule in modern society. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
35.
De LissovoyN.McLarenP. (2003). Educational “accountability” and the violence of capital: A Marxian reading. Journal of Education Policy, 18, 131-143.
DubnickM. J. (1998). Clarifying accountability: An ethical theory framework. In SampfordC.PrestonN. (Eds.), Public sector ethics: Finding and implementing values (pp. 68-81). Sydney, Australia: The Federation Press.
38.
DubnickM. J. (2003). Accountability and ethics: Reconsidering the relationships. International Journal of Organization Theory and Behavior, 6, 405-441. (Reprinted in the Encyclopedia of Public Administration and Policy, pp. 1-14, New York, NY: Marcel Dekker, 2003).
39.
DubnickM. J. (2005). Accountability and the promise of performance. Public Performance & Management Review, 28, 376-417.
40.
DubnickM. J. (2011). Move over Daniel: We need some “accountability space.”Administration & Society, 43, 704-716.
41.
DubnickM. J.FredericksonH. G. (2010). Accountable agents: Federal performance measurement and third-party government. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 20(Suppl. 1), 143-159.
42.
DubnickM. J.JusticeJ. (2004, September2-5). Accounting for accountability. Paper prepared for presentation at the 2004 meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, IL.
43.
DubnickM. J.YangK. (2011). The pursuit of accountability: Promise, problems, and prospects. In MenzelD. C.WhiteH. L. (Eds.), The state of public administration: Issues, challenges, and opportunities (pp. 171-186). Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
Eleven private universities offer 50 courses without UGC approval. (2005, January18). New Age.
46.
FieldenJ.LaRocqueN. (2008, June). The evolving regulatory context for private education in emerging economies (Discussion paper). Washington, DC: International Colloquium on Private Education, The World Bank.
47.
FoucaultM. (1991). Governmentality. In BurchellG.GordonC.MillerP. (Eds.), The Foucault effect: Studies in governmentality (pp. 87-104). Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
48.
40-45 varsities way behind prerequisites. (2004, October19). The Daily Star.
49.
FuentesC. M. M. (2008). Pathways from interpersonal violence to sexually transmitted infections: A mixed method study of diverse women. Journal of Women’s Health, 17, 1591-1603.
50.
GalalA.JonesL.TandonP.VogelsangI. (1994). Welfare consequences of selling public enterprises: An empirical analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
51.
GoreC. (2000). The rise and fall of the Washington Consensus as a paradigm for developing countries. World Development, 28, 789-804.
52.
GorsuchR. L. (1983). Factor analysis (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
53.
GürB. S.ÇelikZ.ÖzoğluM. (2012). Policy options for Turkey: A critique of the interpretation and utilization of PISA results in Turkey. Journal of Education Policy, 27, 1-21.
54.
HenslinJ. M. (1995). What is sociology? In HenslinJ. M. (Ed.), Down to earth sociology: Introductory readings (pp. 8-18). New York, NY: The Free Press.
55.
The Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project (HEQEP). (2014). A project of University Grants Commission of Bangladesh, Ministry of Education, Government of Bangladesh. Retrieved from http://www.heqep-ugc.gov.bd/index.php/home/subproject.
HolzhackerD.ChornovianO.YazilitasD.Dayan-OcherK. (2009). Privatization in higher education: Cross-country analysis of trends, policies, problems, and solutions. Washington, DC: Institute for Higher Education Policy.
58.
HopperR. (1998). Emerging public universities in Bangladesh: Public enemy or Ally. In PhilipG. A. (Ed.), Private higher education a global revolution. Boston, MA: International Higher Education, The Boston College Centre for International Higher Education.
59.
HuismanJ.CurrieJ. (2004). Accountability in higher education: Bridge over troubled water?Higher Education, 48, 529-551.
60.
HuntS. (2009). Transatlantic recognition issues: Seeking new directions in the twenty-first century. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 16, 65-81.
JickT. (1979). Mixing qualitative and quantitative methods: Triangulation in Action. Administrative Science Quarterly, 24, 602-611.
64.
JohnstonJ. M.RomzekB. S. (2008). Social welfare contracts as networks: The impact of network stability on management and performance. Administration & Society, 40, 115-146.
65.
KwanP. Y.NgP. W. K. (1999). Quality indicators in higher education: Comparing Hong Kong and China students. Managerial Auditing Journal, 14, 20-27.
66.
LernerJ.TetlockP. (1999). Accounting for the effects of accountability. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 255-275.
67.
LevyD. C. (2013). The decline of private higher education. High Education Policy, 26, 25-42.
68.
MarangosJ. (2009). What happened to the Washington Consensus? The evolution of international development policy. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 38, 197-208.
69.
McCleeryR. K.De PaolisF. (2008). The Washington Consensus: A post-mortem. Journal of Asian Economics, 19, 438-446.
70.
McLendonM. K.JamesC. H.RussD. (2006). Called to account: Analyzing the origins and spread of state performance-accountability policies for higher education. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 28, 1-24.
71.
MegginsonW. L. (2005). The financial economics of privatization. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
72.
MeierB. (2004). Corruption in the education sector: An introduction. Transparency International, and Christian Michelsen Institute, Berlin, Germany.
Ministry serves notice on six private universities. (2005, March1). New Age.
75.
ModellS. (2010). Bridging the paradigm divide in management accounting research: The role of mixed methods approaches. Management Accounting Research, 21, 124-129.
MundyK. (1998). Educational multi-lateralism and world (dis)order. Comparative Education Review, 42, 448-478.
78.
MyersR. (1990). Classical and modern regression with applications (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Duxbury.
79.
NunnallyJ. C. (1978). Psychometric theory (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
80.
OlssenM.CoddJ.O’NeillA. M. (2004). Education policy: Globalization, citizenship and democracy. London, England: Sage.
81.
ÖnişZ.ŞensesF. (2005). Rethinking the emerging post-Washington Consensus. Development and Change, 36, 263-290.
82.
PachuashviliM. (2009). The politics of higher education: Governmental policy choices and private higher education in post-communist countries (Doctoral thesis). Central European University, Budapest, Hungary.
QuddusM.RashidS. (2000). The worldwide movement in private universities. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 59, 487-516.
90.
RabossiM. (2010). Universities and fields of study in Argentina’ program for Research on Private Higher Education (Working Paper 15). Albany, New York, NY: University at Albany.
91.
RansomA.Siew-MunK.SelvaratnamV. (1993). Improving higher education in developing countries (EDI Series). Washington, DC: The World Bank.
92.
RichardsonR. W.HaralzJ. H. (1995). Moving to the market: The World Bank in transition. Washington, DC: Overseas Development Council.
93.
RomzekB. S. (1996). Enhancing accountability. In PerryJ. L. (Ed.), Handbook of public administration (pp. 97-114). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
94.
RomzekB. S. (2000). Dynamic of public accountability in an area of reform. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 66, 21-44.
95.
RomzekB. S.DubnickM. J. (1987). Accountability in the public sector: Lessons from the challenger tragedy. Public Administration Review, 47, 227-238.
96.
RomzekB. S.DubnickM. J. (1998). Accountability. In ShafritzJ. M. (Ed.), International encyclopedia of public policy and administration (pp. 6-11). Boulder, CO: Westview.
97.
RomzekB. S.IngrahamP. (2000). Cross pressures of accountability: Initiative, command, and failure in the Ron Brown plane crash. Public Administration Review, 60, 240-253.
98.
RomzekB. S.JohnstonJ. M. (2005). State social services contracting: Exploring the determinants of effective contract accountability. Public Administration Review, 65, 436-449.
99.
RomzekB. S.LeRouxK.BlackmarJ. M. (2012). A preliminary theory of informal accountability among network organizational actors. Public Administration Review, 72, 442-453.
100.
RomzekB. S.LeRouxK.JohnstonJ.BlackmarJ.KempfR.SchedeJ. (2011, June2-4). Informal accountability dynamics within service delivery networks. Paper presented at the 11th National Public Management Research Conference, Syracuse, NY.
101.
RyanC. M.WalshP. (2004). Collaboration of public sector agencies: Reporting and accountability challenges. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 17, 621-631.
102.
SchlenkerB. (1997). Personal responsibility: Applications of the triangle model. Research in Organizational Behavior, 19, 241-301.
103.
StiglitzJ. (1994). Whither socialism?Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
StiglitzJ. (1997b, December12). Workshop on issues of reform and development in China, Tokyo, Japan.
106.
StiglitzJ. (1998a, May). The East Asian crisis and its implications for India. Commemorative Lecture for the Golden Jubilee year Celebration of Industrial Finance, Corporation of India, New Delhi, India.
107.
StiglitzJ. (1998b, January7). More instruments and broader goals: Moving toward the post-Washington Consensus (The 1998 WIDER Annual Lecture). Helsinki, Finland: United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER).
TanK. C.KekS. W. (2004). Service quality in higher education using an enhanced SERVQUAL approach. Quality in Higher Education, 10, 17-24.
110.
TetlockP. (1983). Accountability and complexity of thought. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 74-83.
111.
TetlockP. (1992). The impact of accountability on judgment and choice: Toward a social contingency model. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 25, 331-376.
The World Bank. (1981). Accelerated development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, DC: Author.
122.
The World Bank. (1994a). Adjustment in Africa: Reforms, results and the road ahead (A World Bank Policy Research Report). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
123.
The World Bank. (1994b). Higher education: The lessons of experience. Washington, DC: Author.
124.
The World Bank. (1995). Policies and strategies for education: A World Bank review. Washington, DC: Author.
125.
The World Bank. (2000). Higher education in developing countries: Peril and promise (The Task Force on Higher Education and Society). Washington, DC: Author.
126.
The World Bank. (2008, June). The evolving regulatory context for private education in emerging economies (Discussion Paper). Washington, DC: Author.
127.
The World Bank. (2014a). Bangladesh: Connecting minds in higher education. Washington, DC: Author.
128.
The World Bank. (2014b). Bangladesh: Country summary of higher education. Washington, DC: Author.
129.
The World Bank. (2014c). Bangladesh data. Washington, DC: Author.
130.
The World Bank. (2014d). How to fix poor quality education in South Asia. Washington, DC: Author.
131.
UbillosJ. B. (2005). Changing objectives and formulas in privatization policies: The case of Spain. Administration & Society, 37, 131-167.
132.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (2014, March). Increasing tax revenues to bridge the education financing gap (Education for All Global Monitoring Report). Washington, DC: Author.
WebbP. T. (2011). The evolution of accountability. Journal of Education Policy, 26, 735-756.
135.
WeberE. P. (1999). The question of accountability in historical perspective: From Jackson to contemporary grassroots ecosystem management. Administration & Society, 31, 451-494.
136.
WilliamsonJ. (1993). Democracy and the “Washington Consensus.”World Development, 21, 1329-1336.
137.
WilliamsonJ. (1997). The Washington Consensus revisited. In EmmerijL. (Ed.), Economic and social development into the XXI century (pp. 48-61). Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank; Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. [Distributor]
138.
WoodsN. (2001). Making the IMF and the World Bank more accountable. International Affairs, 77, 83-100.
139.
YangK. (2012). Further understanding accountability in public organizations: Actionable knowledge and the structure-agency duality. Administration & Society, 44, 255-284.
