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An old saying –“Jack of all trades, master of none”– deliberately asserts that the purpose of a master’s degree program is to generate high level job skills in order to improve a nation's economy, while a bachelor degree produces economically productive graduates. Employment of such graduates is fundamentally important for personal and economic development. There is a link between a bachelor’s and master's degree and how these qualifications are linked to the job market. Both horizontal and vertical mismatches are developed which is the central focus of this research.

Given the differentiated nature of research questions, multiple techniques are used to collect the data. However, this research bears the norms of the qualitative method. Both secondary and primary data are used, and meanwhile secondary data are collected by the banks, Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (BANBEIS), University Grants Commission (UGC) and by the institutions sampled. Primary data are gathered from interviews with key people. Data were collected from three institutions of higher education and from six commercial banks and from the Central Bank. The academic results of 21,325 MBA graduates and education backgrounds of 750 executives working in banks served as the basis for establishing our arguments.

This study discovers that MBA graduates who have studied science subjects achieved much better grades in the MBA compared to their counterparts who studied business from secondary provision to first degree. The market-driven MBA programme has become a “business product”. The major revenue of higher education institutions comes from enrolment in MBA courses. For this reason, a science-friendly MBA program is developed to generate more business. If this continues, the philosophy of the master's program would either be lost or will have to be redefined in the 21st century.

While a few studies have investigated the area of HE in Bangladesh, none covers the impact of MBA degrees on the job market and its contribution to enhancing job skills.

Universally, university is considered as the apex body which is ethically obliged to present a substantial society. In doing so, universities often innovate dynamic business models and theories. Ideally, the countries whose universities contribute for better and sustainable business growth are the advanced one. However, universities themselves should be the business organisation – an argument is yet to receive attention. Although literature lacks in the area of education business especially university provision, the sector behaves as business entity after the inception of private sector. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the paradigm transformation of university sector and its impact on the society.

Given the differentiated nature of research questions, multiple techniques are used to collect the data. However, this research adopts the norms of qualitative methods. Both secondary and primary data are used. While secondary data are collected by University Grants Commission (UGC), primary data are collected through interviews.

Findings show that the development of university sector started following monopoly model. More than half a century, the same model was continued. Thereafter, duopoly model was introduced which carried until the inception of private sector. The growth of private sector followed oligopoly model which was further extended to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). These days, society compares university with “diploma mill”, as production of knowledge and civic society is longer than the part of the core business of university. Consequently, compromising with research is to be judged as a threat to overall development that includes business and social development.

A few studies have been published in the area of private university. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, none covers the oligopoly-ism and SME-ism behaviour of university and its impact on the concept of university and on the society. Therefore, this project aims to understand the norms of university business and its substantial contribution on the social change.

Criteria of skills and their schemata have evolved out of historical social practices. Interpretation of social events is guided and constrained by the prevailing rationality which itself reflects the dominant constellation of power. Hence, some argued that informal provision of skills delivery is the base of business growth. Upon the success of informal provision, institutional counterpart unethically grabs the market, kicking off the earlier. Evidences arguably confirmed that the institutional provision of skills delivery contributes to rapid business growth. Business growth is indeed important but not at the cost of exploitation of ethics which is the central focus of this study.

Given the differentiated nature of research questions, multiple techniques are used to collect the data. However, this research adopts the norms of qualitative methods. Both secondary and primary data are used. While secondary data are collected through document reviews, primary data are collected via interviews. In total, 12 industries are sampled and equally distributed into two sectors (manufacturing and services).

Findings show that the professional positions in the manufacturing industries at their inception phase were occupied by non-university graduates who received neither informal trainings nor on-the-job trainings. Over the time, university graduates started capturing the market. This has forced the non-university graduates to accrue a diploma from the universities in order to retain. Those who failed to obtain a university diploma are compelled to leave the sector. In fact, professional positions in service industries at the inception phase were mainly occupied by the university graduates who did not study the relevant subjects from the universities but received training from the informal provision. Later, universities started offering these programmes.

A few studies have been published in the area of manufacturing industries especially on garments sector. None covers the paradigm transformation of skills (human capital theory) in garments. The authors also failed to locate a comparative study that maps the contribution of different provisions of skills providers and their paradigm transformations occurred within manufacturing and service industries. Therefore, this project explores the contribution of informal and institutional provisions of skills delivery for the inception and growth of industries by comparing between manufacturing and service industries.

Small and medium enterprises (SME) significantly alleviate poverty and generate employment to achieve sustainable economic growth. Using electronic devices, e-commerce allows an immediate and advanced communication service to accomplish business transactions. Considering logistics provider as a case, this paper aims to examine the impact of adopting an e-commerce technology on its customers’ and agents’ satisfaction.

The authors use the difference in difference methodology to examine these effects and find positive impacts on both customers and service providers.

As SMEs are widely considered as the powerhouse of an economy, the authors’ findings suggest that using e-commerce not only makes an SME agent more efficient but also accelerates an SME business transaction, which ultimately helps to achieve sustainable economic growth.

A few studies are conducted in examining the impact of SME on economy. However, according to the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research that examines the impact of e-commerce on SME.

This article unveils first the lead–lag structure between the confirmed cases of COVID-19 and financial markets, including the stock (DJI), cryptocurrency (Bitcoin) and commodities (crude oil, gold, copper and brent oil) compared to the financial stress index. Second, this paper assesses the role of Bitcoin as a hedge or diversifier by determining the efficient frontier with and without including Bitcoin before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authors examine the lead–lag relationship between COVID-19 and financial market returns compared to the financial stress index and between all markets returns using the thermal optimal path model. Moreover, the authors estimate the efficient frontier of the portfolio with and without Bitcoin using the Bayesian approach.

Employing thermal optimal path model, the authors find that COVID-19 confirmed cases are leading returns prices of DJI, Bitcoin and crude oil, gold, copper and brent oil. Moreover, the authors find a strong lead–lag relationship between all financial market returns. By relying on the Bayesian approach, findings show when Bitcoin was included in the portfolio optimization before or during COVID-19 period; the Bayesian efficient frontier shifts to the left giving the investor a better risk return trade-off. Consequently, Bitcoin serves as a safe haven asset for the two sub-periods: pre-COVID-19 period and COVID-19 period.

Based on the above research conclusions, investors can use the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases to predict financial market dynamics. Similarly, the work is helpful for decision-makers who search for portfolio diversification opportunities, especially during health crisis. In addition, the results support the fact that Bitcoin is a safe haven asset that should be combined with commodities and stocks for better performance in portfolio optimization and hedging before and during COVID-19 periods.

This research thus adds value to the existing literature along four directions. First, the novelty of this study lies in the analysis of several financial markets (stock, cryptocurrencies and commodities)’ response to different pandemics and epidemics events, financial crises and natural disasters (Correia et al., 2020; Ma et al., 2020). Second, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that examine the lead–lag relationship between COVID-19 and financial markets compared to financial stress index by employing the Thermal Optimal Path method. Third, it is a first endeavor to analyze the lead–lag interplay between the financial markets within a thermal optimal path method that can provide useful insights for the spillover effect studies in all countries and regions around the world. To check the robustness of our findings, the authors have employed financial stress index compared to COVID-19 confirmed cases. Fourth, this study tests whether Bitcoin is a hedge or diversifier given this current pandemic situation using the Bayesian approach.

Food security for students is very important if they are to achieve both quantitative and qualitative success in their education and later career. Consequently, “food for education (FFE)” intervention is provided for poorer students who are in primary school in many developing countries. This has helped to achieve the objective of universal education. In absence of a food security programme from the secondary provision, students from poorer families are forced to discontinue their education. For this reason, the success of FFE intervention has been criticised as unsustainable. This paper aims to explore a food security model that can lead to the sustainable development of education in developing nations.

This qualitative study collected primary data from students who were being educated in Bangladesh and receiving “FFE” intervention. In total, 576 respondents (equal number of boys and girls) were selected from six schools located in urban and rural areas. Secondary data were accessed from the archives of the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (BANBEIS) and the World Bank. The paper adopts a descriptive analysis method for primary and secondary sources to report the findings.

Free schooling supported by “FFE” intervention is the key to achieving education for all (EFA) targets. Since its inception, 93% of students who received an FFE intervention have at least completed their primary school education. The success of FFE has encouraged the government to provide a massive intervention strategy which began in 2011. This helped to achieve the EFA target. Despite this success and while nearly 18% of FFE-intervened graduates have completed their secondary education, none went to higher secondary school, let alone tertiary level. The lack of food security was the main reason for youths not continuing with their further education.

The “FFE” programme may work well for children who are being educated since they do not shoulder any family responsibility. In reality, teenagers and adults in emerging nations should devote themselves to ensuring there is enough food for their families. This research presents a new policy option, labelled as “education for food (EFF)”, in order to retain this group in the education system. Being an advocacy model, this may trigger a discourse on how to create a balanced society where both hunger and education are taken care of and problems are solved.

Education system supplies the required manpower in order to ensure the national prosperity. A salient link between education and business sector is a prerequisite to cater economically productive manpower. Economic and social development supplements each other that can only be ensured via a functional education system. A dysfunction education system created by a biased clustering policy develops a greater horizontal and vertical mismatch with the job market in many developing nations. This mismatch dents the quality of business management that halts the national prosperity. Therefore, the role of education has become questionable. This research aims to bridge between education and business sectors.

Given the differentiated nature of research questions, multiple techniques are used to collect the data. However, this research bears the norms of qualitative method. Both secondary and primary data are used. While, secondary data are collected by the banks, Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (BANBEIS) and by the University Grants Commission (UGC), primary data are collected through interviews. Document review and data collected through personal communication with members of staff of sampled banks and institutes of HE also supplements. Data were collected from six commercial banks and from the Central Bank.

Findings suggest that clustering system favours science graduates by depriving business counterpart, which creates an atmosphere of educational disparity. This disparity affects the symbiotic and reciprocal relationship that exists amongst different provisions (i.e. secondaryand tertiary) of education. Favoured clustering system further contributes for a larger “horizontal educational mismatch” with job market. Therefore, science graduates occupy the places in the banks where business graduates should ideally be employed. Being a dysfunction system, education fails to support substantially for social and economic developments.

A few studies are conducted in the area of HE in Bangladesh but none covers the issue of impact of clustering system of education in secondary provision on HE and job market. Graduates' performance in carrying out the jobs is seen as the most important element for the business management. This study has suggested a unique way forward which would be able to reduce the mismatch between education system and job market, enabling a substantial business management process. Considering this, the paper is first on its kind.

This comparative study aims to examine the role of Socio-Economic Status (SES) on the academic performance of university students who hold both the status of Residential College (RC) and non-RC. The study further investigates whether the RC is able to offset the effects of SES on students' learning performance to ensure education equity and inclusion in China.

Data are collected through a questionnaire given to RC and non-RC students enrolled in three public universities in China. A quasi-experimental design is implemented to investigate the potential correlation, if any, between SES, RC and academic performance.

The results reveal that SES influences academic performance of RC students. Furthermore, the findings strongly suggest that RCs negatively moderate the effect of SES on academic performance.

This study examines RCs within a specific type of university in China, which may limit the generalizability of findings. Additionally, it uses a quasi-experimental method and relies solely on quantitative data, which may also introduce limitations.

Provided in this study is evidence that RCs can be an innovative way to bolster inclusive and equitable quality education for students from diverse backgrounds in China.

This study enriches the existing literature by exploring the relationships between RC, SES and academic performance in China. In addition, it provides significant references to whether RC can fulfill students' education equity and inclusion.

Diploma Engineers (DE) mainly receive practical and skills-oriented education and training in the area of technical and vocational subjects from the polytechnic system. Globally, universities have limited DEs access to Higher Education (HE). Over the course of time, many countries have changed this situation, putting into place a decent qualification and policy framework that ensures higher education for deserving candidates. Lately, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) received special priority in developing countries, and Bangladesh is no exception to it, resulting in a massive growth of DE. This study, the first of its kind, examines the impact of this growth with a key focus on the inclusion of diploma engineers into higher education.

Given the differentiated nature of research questions, multiple techniques are used to collect the data. However, this research uses the qualitative method. Both secondary and primary data are used. While secondary data are collected by the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (BANBEIS), primary data are collected through interviews. With standard sets of admission questions, tests are conducted with two groups of students to draw a comparison.

The number of students studying at polytechnic institutes is increasing dramatically. The growth of public polytechnic institutes remains steady. Public counterparts respond to the demand by operating both day and night shifts. Many private polytechnics are also established. The size and infrastructure of private Polytechnics are relatively insignificant. However, the mushrooming private sector covers the increased demand. The curve of DE has been increased radically with a questionable competency by the contribution of both public and private polytechnics. Only one public university provides higher education to these DE.

A few reports have been published in the area of TVET by the development partners and the Government of Bangladesh. Only one journal article is published exploring the role of TVET on national development in Bangladesh. However, none cover the issue of access to university education for DE graduates.