16/01/2013
Faculty turnover: a real concern for private universities
Admin
by Nadim Jahangir
THE demand for higher education has exponentially increased in Bangladesh since its independence, necessitating establishment of private universities. The Private University Act was enacted in 1992 and three private universities came into being the next year. The number has increased to 54 as of now, with 20 more in the pipeline. Needless to say, the growth of private universities in Bangladesh has been significant. The rate of enrolment in private universities has also surpassed that in public universities in the past 10 years.
The primary objective of the private universities is supposedly to create more opportunities for higher education in the country along with public universities and thus partially prevent the outflow of foreign currency caused by students going abroad for higher studies. In these institutions, some 7,000 full-time members of faculty work, which, again, point to the tremendous growth of private universities in Bangladesh. Still, there is a shortage of full-time faculty members, especially at the senior level. Moreover, the number of faculty members with PhD degrees is also not adequate.
The heart of any university is its faculty members and library. This article will focus on exclusive on faculty turnover, i.e. the ratio of the number of faculty members that needs to be replaced in a given time period to the average number of faculty members, in the private sector. In the context of human resources, turnover is the rate at which an employer gains and loses employees. One indicator of it is ‘how long employees tend to stay’ in an organisation. Faculty turnover is a nagging problem for many private universities in Bangladesh.
As in public universities, faculty members of private universities who go overseas for higher education also tend to stay back. Moreover, switching among private universities by a faculty member is a common phenomenon. Therefore, the turnover rate of faculty members in private universities is much higher than that of public universities in Bangladesh. Faculty retention is regarded as a core challenge for private universities. Among public universities there is almost no switching of faculty members but unfortunately it is a common phenomenon in case of private universities. There are also cases in private universities where faculty members after working for a few years come to the realisation that the compensation offered is not enough. The private corporate houses pay much higher and also have a quicker upward mobility prospect; therefore, they switch to corporate houses.
In today’s competitive world trained employees are the key to an organisation’s success. Any organisation that wants to be competitive in the market and wants to be leader in the industry must strive to reduce the turnover of the best talented employees. In the context of organisations, their focus would be to fulfil employees’ needs that would make them more committed and satisfied with the job, which, in turn, would increase their productivity. As a result, employees will have lesser intention to leave their respective organisations.
Turnover rate is one of the major concerns for the management of private universities. Therefore, to improve the turnover condition, the private universities should focus on faculty compensation, job security, working atmosphere, job autonomy, and supervisory supports. University managements must focus on growth and development of the faculty members. Management must set up a clear guideline for their upward movement and higher studies. All the private universities must have a faculty manual as well as a management manual. Private universities must build up a fund to send faculties for PhD or should set up a guideline that if the faculties go for higher studies they would at least get their basic salary. Generally, a faculty member needs initial cost to get enrolled in a PhD programme, even if the authorities provide them with a year’s tuition for a faculty member, the rest can be managed by the faculty members themselves. Few universities have a guideline that once the faculty members come back with the degrees one to two years’ basic salary is given to them. More to it, to be considered eligible to obtain this basic salary, they have to serve their respective institutions for a few years. In reality a faculty member needs first year’s tuition to begin the programme, and I am sure with her/his merit the person would be able to manage the rest. The authorities need to trust their faculty members. All these suggested steps would surely reduce the turnover ratio in context of private universities.
Owners of the universities should refrain themselves from universities’ day-to-day activities. Owners may set up the guidelines but implementation of these should be left to the university administration. This will create a comfort zone for the faculties and management at large. This comfort zone is also essential if the private universities want to attract more qualified faculty members. For these private universities, tuition is the only source of revenue. The government must provide some sort of financial support to the private universities. The University Grants Commission is there to control private universities but when it comes to helping these universities financially the commission’s contribution is absolutely zero. Somehow I get the feeling that the government feels that public universities are their own institutions but private universities do not belong to them. The government needs to realise that at the end of the day whether public or private, they are all universities of Bangladesh. And government needs be sensitive towards the private universities. They are here to provide higher education for our future generation. The government should encourage investors to establish universities outside Dhaka, and use free land as the incentive token. Also the government can help the current universities in Dhaka to buy land on loan with a reduced interest rate. Providing this financial benefit would allow the private universities to be more research-oriented. This will also play a big role towards lower turnover ratio among the faculties. There are faculties from aboard who want to come to Bangladesh but they do not because of lack of research facilities of private universities.
To sum up, universities should be wary of faculty turnover, the higher the turnover the higher the impact (i.e. negative) on the institution. The top management should be concerned about it as it not only has a negative impact on them it also has a negative impact on the minds of the students. When faculties keep changing the students too have doubts about the place they are in. What is a university without its students? Therefore, it is imperative to reduce this so that the students feel stable in their environment which translates into more enrolment and the lifelong existence of an institute.
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Dr Nadim Jahangir is professor and director, School of Business, Independent University, Bangladesh.
