
OSUN Publications
Exploring the Evolution and Landscape of Liberal Arts Higher Education in Bangladesh through Case Studies: Challenges and Opportunities to Replicating the Model in Developing Economies
Abstract
Bangladesh, a South Asian country that is expecting to graduate from a least-developed country to a developing country in 2026, often experiences trade-offs between economic growth and development in the contemporary sense. However, despite rooting out of extreme poverty soon after independence, Bangladesh does not receive the acclamation it deserves for the remarkable progress it has made in terms of expanding its higher education landscape. At present, a more practical discussion ought to happen in terms of innovating higher education to meet the changing needs of Bangladesh’s economy and wider society. Liberal arts and sciences was not an educational framework that was familiar to Bangladesh for many years. However, with discussions currently propelling toward finding innovative ways to diversify the graduate ecology, the liberal arts education model is gaining increasing attention from educational practitioners. It is, however, not a straightforward endeavor to replicate a Western-born, interdisciplinary educational model within a context where economic pragmatism and cultural and religious values take precedence. The current research, therefore, explores what factors enable and challenge the replication of the liberal arts education model in the higher education landscape of Bangladesh. The research purposively selected and analyzed three institutions that currently practice the liberal arts model in localized forms. Findings suggest that while factors such as the ability to practice academic freedom, availability of expertise, receptiveness among faculty and administration, familiarity with the model, training support, and safeguarding can act as enablers to institutionalizing liberal arts, socio-cultural practices, economic survival, misaligned priorities, unfamiliarity with the concept, and resistance to change hinder institutions from experimenting with their effort to localize and adopt liberal arts practices to meet the contemporary needs of Bangladesh.