People have fake PhDs from abroad, says Education Minister Nahid

Many in Bangladesh have fake PhD degrees from abroad, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid has said.

“A person can get fake PhD degrees from Europe and America,” he said in reply to a question posed by an MP in Parliament on Thursday. 
 
“People there are waiting to hand these degrees.” 
 
MP Abdul Matin Khasru had said many private universities in Bangladesh were handing out PhDs. “They can’t speak a word of English but has PhDs.”
 
The minister, in his reply, said, “No private university in Bangladesh has the jurisdiction to award PhD degrees. They can give other degrees.”   
 
Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Raushon Ershad then asked the education minister why the Dhaka University was not among the 100 best universities in the world. 
 

“It’s baseless to say that the Dhaka University is the Oxford of the East,” said the minister. “We just got used to people saying it.” 

The university was the largest and oldest, he said. “Its standard is going down… I’ve been hearing this for 50 years now. Students are passing out but the standard is low.”

“It would be 50 feet underground if that was true. But it’s also true that it could not achieve a global standard.”

“We can’t raise its standard overnight,” Nahid added.