Commodifying English in Bangladesh's Higher Education: A Critical Political Economy of Private Universities and Language Centres

Abstract

This study examines how English is commodified in Bangladesh's private universities and language centres, and how regulation and discourse sustain this. Over 110 fee-dependent private universities teach mainly in English, which is marketed as a route to jobs and migration. Access remains class-stratified. A critical qualitative, document-based design grounded in critical realism is adopted. The corpus comprises two policy texts, six purposively sampled institutional web texts and eight news items. Critical policy analysis, critical discourse analysis and framing analysis are applied. Findings are triangulated with published studies. Regulation covers governance and fees but not English provision. Universities gate entry through remedial English without publishing its cost. Language centres sell tiered, discounted packages with unverified outcome claims. News coverage contests prices, not the need to buy English. The University Grants Commission should standardise and publish English-support fees. Language centres need regulation; public bilingual foundation programmes would reduce reliance on purchased English.