The government in Bangladesh is setting up more private universities even though the number of students and teachers at such higher education institutions has been dropping for the last four years. According to the University Grants Commission, private universities are failing to provide quality education, and, in some cases, they were set up without adequate planning as approval was allegedly obtained using political connections. Under the Private Universities Act, a university must own a permanent campus within seven years of its launch. 77 universities are over seven years old but only 26 have permanent campuses.

The Anti-Corruption Commission has charged five members and an executive director of the North South University (NSU) board of governors with abuse of power, increasing their allowances to ten times the approved rate, and buying luxury cars at the expense of students. For more than a decade, NSU has offered several Bachelor of Business Administration programmes without University Grants Commission approval. According to an investigator, NSU was allowed to enrol 50 students in approved BBA programmes, but it enrolled about 2,700 students in one semester.

A Bangladeshi Member of Parliament, who holds one of the 50 seats reserved for women, was expelled from the university after hiring up to eight proxies to take her exams. According to the Open University's vice-chancellor, the MP’s registration has been canceled and she would not be allowed in any examination under the university again.

The Bangladesh government has decided to warn students and their guardians of the fact that private universities' open outer campuses in the guise of regional resource centers, study centers, etc. The ministry has come to know that students who take admission in those unapproved local universities are frequently cheated. Actually, there are 51 private universities in Bangladesh which were run according to the Private University Act 1992, as amended in 1998.