Our new comparability advice for Bachelor degrees from Bangladesh
By Aisling Evans, UK ENIC International Education Analyst
Our team recently concluded research on Bangladesh, leading to an upgrade in our assessment of Bachelor degrees from the country.
Current comparability |
New comparability |
For degrees awarded
|
|
3-year Bachelor degrees |
Certificate of Higher Education |
Diploma in Higher Education |
From 2024 onwards |
4-year Bachelor degrees |
Diploma of Higher Education |
Bachelor degree | From 2025 onwards |
Bachelor of Science in Nursing |
Diploma of Higher Education |
Bachelor degree | From 2025 onwards |
Postgraduate Bachelor of Education |
RQF Level 5/ SCQF Level 8/ CQFW Level 5 |
RQF Level 6/ SCQF Level 10/ CQFW Level 6 |
From 2025 onwards |
Bachelor degrees in Medicine, Dentistry or Veterinary Science (including D.ET) |
Bachelor (Ordinary) degree |
Bachelor degree | Applies to Bachelor degrees from any date |
| Bachelor degrees in Engineering |
Diploma of Higher Education Bachelor degree (with relevant accreditation) |
Bachelor degree | Applies to Bachelor degrees in any engineering specialism from any date |
Introducing the BNQF and BAC
In 2021, the Bangladesh National Qualifications Framework (BNQF) was finalised, paving the way for a more consistent benchmarking of qualifications within the higher education sector in the country. This development contributed to our decision to upgrade our comparability of Bachelor degrees in Bangladesh.
The BNQF is made up of ten levels, covering academic, technical and vocational, and religious education, from school to doctoral level.
Accompanying the BNQF is the Bangladesh Accreditation Council (BAC), which has begun processing applications from several universities since the publishing of the BNQF.
Currently, no courses have received accreditation yet, but several of these programmes appear to be near the end of the assessment process.
Despite this, we expect that, for many institutions, there will be ongoing efforts to align their programmes to this Framework to ensure that programmes completed after the BNQF was introduced will be institutionally aligned to it, allowing us, in part, to provide a higher comparability for these degrees.
A small insight into engineering degrees
Those familiar with Bangladesh will be used to checking the status of engineering degrees with the Bangladesh Engineering Council (BEC) and the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB), to determine the level of a Bachelor of Science in Engineering. So, why has this changed?
Although the BEC and IEB provide thorough oversight for Bangladesh engineering programmes, graduates from unaccredited programmes are not necessarily locked out of an engineering career in Bangladesh.
Our research found the general quality of engineering degrees has remained consistent over time and across institutions regardless of accreditation, so we were satisfied that all Engineering degrees from a recognised Bangladesh institution could be considered comparable to a Bachelor degree standard in the UK.
Bangladesh: Looking to the future
With the introduction of the BNQF, it is expected that most universities, regardless of BAC accreditation, will take measures to align their programmes with this Framework.
Following these changes, we plan to look at the level of Bangladesh Master’s degrees and its equivalent, the Kamil, that have been awarded since the introduction of the BNQF.