About the Project

Improving skills and productivity are crucial to Bangladesh’s quest to accelerate economic growth and become a middle-income country. However, the current skill levels of the labor force are unlikely to support future market demands. While there is an abundance of low-skilled workers, there is a strong demand for graduates with higher cognitive and non-cognitive skills and job-specific technical skills. This would require improving the quality and relevance of tertiary education so that education institutions are equipped to produce graduates with more market relevant skills.

To meet the human development needs of the country, the College Education Development Project (CEDP) was incepted in 2016. The CEDP aims to strengthen the strategic planning and management capacity of the college education subsector and to improve the teaching and learning environment of participating colleges.The Project specifically focuses on the tertiary college education sector under the National University (NU) which accounts for nearly two-thirds of all tertiary students in around 2,200 government and nongovernment colleges in Bangladesh.

The CEDP is under the Ministry of Education and co-executed by the National University and the University Grants Commission of Bangladesh. Other key partners include Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE), Bangladesh Open University (BOU), National Academy for Educational Management (NAEM), University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC).

The total project cost is US$ 130 million of which the World Bank is financing US$ 100 million and the remaining (US$ 30 million) by the Government of Bangladesh. The project implementation period
July 2016- December 2023.

Vision

Overall socio-economic development of the country by improving quality and relevance of college education commensurate with national and international demand.

Mission

Ensuring effective strategic planning, management and quality of college education subsector.

Project Activities

The focus of CEDP is to improve the capacity of the National University college system to plan, manage, implement, and monitor its institutional programs and strengthen the foundation for the next phase of development activities. The Project supports the development of a Strategic Plan for the College Subsector, to provide directions and goals for the college education subsector and a consensus-based plan of action.

Through the availability of competitive grants, CEDP promotes institution-led activities that focus on creating quality teaching learning environment in government and non-government colleges. The Institutional Development Grants (IDGs) will focus on areas, such as: (a) upgrading basic teaching-learning facilities and Internet connectivity; (b) improving market relevance of college education through development of soft skills of students and linkages with the industry/employers; (c) introducing quality assurance; and (d) strengthening management capacity and upgrading the fiduciary system in the colleges.

The IDG activities will help provide government and education practitioners insight on the planning, management, and implementation capacity of participating colleges, informing the strategic plan, policy, and operations of the subsector.

CEDP promotes professional development of teachers through training offered through the establishment of a Training Consortium. The Training Consortium comprises of national training-offering agencies and the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus as international partner to ensure global best practices in teacher training. Additionally, the project aims to fill teacher vacancies in government colleges and improve recruitment process of teachers for non-government colleges.

Expected outcomes

• A long-term Strategic Plan for the development of College Subsector at tertiary level
• Improvement of teaching and learning environment of around 122 government and non-government Honours teaching colleges
• Attainment of academic excellence of colleges by providing need based higher professional training for around 16,500 teachers, managers and future leaders
• Filling up around 2,700 vacant teaching posts in the government colleges
• Generation of employability and skilled human resources