The South Asian countries have all experienced a rapid expansion of their higher education sector in recent decades. Uniquely in the world, South Asia achieved this expansion through growth of Enrolment in the affiliating colleges. This paper establishes a set of common features of the affiliated college model in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. Further, it reviews the available information on the consequence in terms of quality, relevance, and outcomes of the affiliation model. Overall, the affiliated colleges are found to provide sub-standard education due to low investments, multiple stakeholders and complex governance structure, low teacher qualifications, small size of colleges and limited investments in infrastructure. This shortcoming is combined with weak supervisory and monitoring capabilities in the affiliating universities, quality assurance agencies and government authorities. This low quality will affect the productivity of the labor force and economic growth and development of these countries moving forward. The paper recommends that it is no longer sustainable or wise to continue the current way these colleges are operated and managed. A road map is proposed for a gradual reform of the affiliated college model through policy changes and capacity building at all levels of the system, notably the colleges themselves, affiliating universities, regulatory agencies and governments.

The affiliated colleges sector in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan share many common features and challenges. A large proportion of students (more than 45%) pursuing tertiary education in each country is enrolled in an affiliated college. However, there are strong concerns that the quality of education provided by these colleges is substandard. If reforms are not undertaken urgently, this will clearly impede the countries’ economic growth and development.

This report aims to provide a broad overview of the common features and challenges found in the affiliated colleges system in these four countries, and also suggests possible reform measures. This report also aims to complement the country-specific studies that will be undertaken to provide a deeper understanding and more refined policy-recommendations customized to suit each country’s context.

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