The Challenges of Students from Rural Backgrounds in Urban Institutions for Tertiary Education

Abstract

Nations with well-educated citizens are capable to utilize their knowledge properly and they can deal with any new changes and challenges. It is said that tertiary level of education is such level where skills for the knowledge economy are built. Higher education leads the nation to achieve the development destination more smoothly. Tertiary education is considered as a prime aspect of knowledge and exploitation of knowledge. A higher educational institution makes a great contribution to the economic growth and development through fostering innovation and increasing higher skills that expand the quality of life. Higher education is one the of key indicators of growth performance, prosperity and competitiveness. The large number of universities have been established by publicly and privately in Bangladesh at urban and rural areas. But for better quality of education, rural students migrate to urban universities from their belief and face lots of opportunities and challenges in urban institutions. The purpose of this study is to determine the challenges that rural students face when enrolling at urban universities in Dhaka city. We conducted a qualitative collective case study and analyzed the perceptions of rural students. A categorical analysis and open coding of the data collected in the study resulted in mainly three emerging themes: accommodation, education and overall new environment that involve with poor academic performance, language barriers, technological shortcoming, learning difficulties, financial constraints, adjusting to an urban lifestyle, difficulty in making friends and living alone.