The government on Monday approved in principle the creation of an ‘Accreditation Council for Universities of Bangladesh’ and a set of rules for it with the objective of ensuring quality and standard of higher education amid objections from the private universities.
The formation of the accreditation council and the set of rules for it were approved at a meeting of the education ministry chaired by education minister Nurul Islam Nahid at the ministry’s auditorium in the secretariat.
Among others, the meeting was attended by education secretary Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury, Dhaka University vice chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology vice chancellor Nazrul Islam.
Later, Naser Chowdhury said that the government approved the formation of the accreditation council to ensure quality university education.
The rules, he said, would be finalized at the next meeting of the ministry after elaborate discussions.
He said that some amendments were made at the meeting to the rules drafted by the University Grants Commission.
The draft rules stipulate that the council would decide the status of private universities through evaluation of academic programmes so that the students could choose where to study and guardians could chose where to send their wards for higher education.
The rules also stipulate that the accreditation council would comprise a general council, an executive committee and a number of programme committees. 
The rules empower the chancellor to appoint the general council chairperson.
No representative of the Association of Private Universities of Bangladesh could attend the meeting held quite suddenly on Monday without any notice, said M Alimullah Miyan, the secretary of the association.
He told New Age that the meeting, scheduled to be held earlier, was postponed.
On Sunday evening the education ministry told
the association that the meeting would be held on Monday.
‘We could not attend the meeting due to hartal called by the opposition,’ he said.
He said that the private universities had some objections about the formation of the accreditation council and the set of rules for it.
 ‘We informed the education ministry about our objections in writing,’ he said.
‘We find no reason for creating another body to oversee the universities, because it was bound to create bureaucratic complications,’ he said.
‘The creation of an Accreditation Council for the Private Universities in Bangladesh in the present form might hamper the process of development of quality manpower in the country and adversely affect its progress,’ said that association in its written objection.
However, educationists have been demanding an accreditation council to ensure quality education in the private universities.
Formation of the accreditation was delayed due to stiff opposition from the private universities.