Analytical Views of Student Enrolment Trend of Different Programs of Bangladesh Open University and its Projection

Year 2007, Volume: 8 Issue: 2, 49 - 61, 01.06.2007

Sharker Numan Anwarul Islam Anwar Sadat

Abstract

Bangladesh Open University (BOU) is only University of the country which provides mass education in different dimensions in science, agriculture, humanities, social science, health, etc. It intends to provide opportunities of education to all classes of people and create efficient and skilled manpower by improving the quality of education. BOU was established in 1992 by launching B. Ed. program. Now it has 20 formal programs and enrolled 7,81,904 students from beginning to till 2006. This study focuses on the analysis of students’ enrollment trend at different programs of BOU as well as shows the projection of enrollment trend. The students’ enrollment data prepared in 2006 by the Students Support services Division of BOU has been used in this study. The year wise students’ enrollment pattern in different programs of BOU is analyzed using linear regression. The study showed that every year student’s enrollment is rising for only four programs and declining for rest of the programs. The study reveals that some programs already have touched the border line of zero students’ enrolment. At the same time, projection shows that if these trends continue at these rates, then students’ enrollment of six of these programs would reach to nil in next few years. So, it is the time for the policy makers and the academics to rethink about those programs and take effective strategies to revive those programs. In the end, authors also pointed out some measures to be considered in offering effective and more popular educational program through BOU.

Keywords

BOU; Academic Program; Enrollment Trend; Projection; Linear Regression

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