Impact of Online Education on Students in Public and Private Universities Bangladesh: A Qualitative Investigation

The rapid growth of technology has accelerated the broad acceptance of online learning, which provides accessibility, customization, and cost-effectiveness. In Bangladesh, the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent heat wave prompted educational institutions to quickly migrate to online platforms. This study compares the effectiveness of online education at public and private universities in Khulna, concentrating on discernible disparities and their effects on academic and future career prospects. Restricted opportunities theory underpinned the study which is qualitative in nature. A semi-structured interview guide was used to conduct the study where 16 purposefully selected participants from four public and private universities were interviewed. Data collected from the in-depth interviews (IDIs) were transcribed, translated and analyzed thematically. The study findings revealed differences in access to high-speed internet, devices, and financial aid, with public university students having greater problems. Furthermore, public university students lag behind their private counterparts in terms of academic performance and potential employment opportunities. This research suggests the importance of policy improvements and structural changes within educational institutions to promote fair access and opportunities in the digital learning ecosystem.


INTRODUCTION:
Education is seen as one type of investment and is a dynamic force that helps a country builds a strong economy.It creates and improves opportunities and provides societies with a workforce that is knowledgeable and skilled (Sheikh et al., 2022).Modern technology has advanced at an accelerating rate, causing a seismic upheaval in the global education environment where online learning has become a dominant force.Students' educational experiences have altered substantially as a result of the broad acceptance of online learning, which is differentiated by its low cost, flexibility, and availability.In Bangladesh, online learning has been increasingly popular during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been dubbed the biggest crisis since World War II (Alizadeh et al., 2023;Devkota, 2021).The imperative of social distancing and remote work arrangements mandated by the pandemic necessitated the rapid adoption of online education, disrupting traditional face-to-face learning methods (Onyema et al., 2020;Bari SM., 2022).
In the midst of the epidemic, educational institutions in Bangladesh and many other countries faced the extraordinary problem of guaranteeing student safety while maintaining educational continuity.Colleges and institutions were forced to quickly switch to online learning modalities after it was discovered that traditional face-to-face instruction may have contributed to the COVID-19 virus's propagation (Khan et al., 2021).Moreover, the heat wave that recently occurred in Bangladesh has highlighted the importance of online education as a resilient substitute.In order to reduce the risks associated with heat-related illnesses, educational institutions such as Dhaka University, Chittagong University, and Jagannath University switched to online classes in response to court orders requiring the closure of schools due to the extreme heat wave (Prothomalo, 2024; The Daily Star, 2024).
The need to maintain educational continuity during the pandemic and heat wave highlights the critical role that online education plays in preserving the students' access to education.However, this transformation has created important problems about equity and discrimination among students at public and private universities in Bangladesh.In addition, university students are typically regarded as one of the most serious groups with the purpose of choosing a career (Islam et al, 2021).And so there is a strong probability of a significant impact of online education on these students' career.As Bangladesh has made progress in increasing access to higher education over the years, it is relevant to examine the impact of online education on students from both public and private universities in Bangladesh.

Research Objectives
The purpose of this study is to look into instances of inequality and prejudice in online learning and how they impact students' academic and professional trajectories.This research attempts to accomplish the following objectives in order to better understand the effectiveness of online education in Khulna's public and private universities: 1) To assess the effectiveness of online education in public and private universities 2) To investigate the impact of online education on academic and career prospects for students from public and private universities 3) To identify instances of discrimination between students of public and private universities in concerning academic and career advancement 4) To examine the nature and extent of discrimination in online education and its eventual consequences on students' academic and professsional lives By addressing these objectives, this study aims to provide useful insights into the challenges of online education in the context of higher education in Bangladesh, with a particular emphasis on Khulna.These insights are necessary for policymakers, educators, and stakeholders to formulate strategies for creating inclusive and equitable educational settings in the digital era.
Research Questions RQ1: What is the effectiveness of online education in public and private universities in Khulna, Bangladesh?RQ2-What are the discriminations that the students face because of online education in public and private universities in Khulna?RQ3-What is the nature and extent of discrimination in online education and its eventual consequences on students' academic and professional lives?

Review of Literature
The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching effects on various aspects of society, including education.In Bangladesh, the higher education sector has faced significant challenges due to the outbreak, leading to disruptions in traditional learning patterns and exacerbating concerns regarding academic performance and mental well-being among university students.This literature review aims to synthesize findings from recent studies examining the impact of the pandemic on Bangladeshi university students, focusing on factors such as academic delay fears, psychological stress, educational disruptions, access to online education, and the utilization of technology for learning.public and private colleges or how it affects their academic and professional prospects.This study aims to uncover the discrimination and its consequences for students at public and private universities in Khulna.

Theoretical Foundation Restricted Opportunities Theory
The research is connected to the theory of restricted opportunities (Schiller, 2000).A lack of essential resources that provide support and protection makes it impossible for a person to avoid being vulnerable (Ela et al., 2021).The case for limited opportunity is supported by the implicit biases of capitalism, which hold that people who subscribe to "bleeding heart liberalism" are always innocent and blameless and blame society for all social problems.The benefits of this concept stem from the fact that it fosters selfreflection as to why one is poor rather than blaming others.The problem is that it is only conceivable to point fingers when a policy is criticized without any reflection.To fix this issue both sides must make reciprocal modifications.Effective e-learning depends on things like constant high-speed internet, the availability, accessibility, and affordability of electronic equipment, curriculum, and remote assessment (Lassoued et al., 2020).In online education, there are a number of obstacles, including those relating to money, curriculum, and technology (Lassoued et al., 2020;Mahmud and Gope, 2009).In spite of efforts made by a number of institutions and the University Grants Commission of Bangladesh, Bangladesh's higher education instructors and students do not have access to the communication equipment and the consistent high-speed internet connections required to continue their education online (Zaman, 2020).Bangladeshi data shows that an inconsistent internet connection hinders online lessons (Majed et al., 2020;Sarker et al., 2019;Zaman, 2020).A significant barrier to the implementation of online education in Bangladesh is the difficulty of students to acquire desktop or laptop computers equipped with the necessary components.(Majed et al., 2020).In Bangladesh, 36.7% of houses have internet, while 5.6% have computers (Majed et al., 2020;Zaman, 2020).Online education is revealing socioeconomic inequities among university students and producing mental health difficulties such as anxiety, despair, and dissatisfaction, particularly among students from lowermiddle income households who cannot afford essential facilities (Zaman, 2020), and in certain situations to depression (Lathabhavan and Griffiths, 2020;Mamun et al., 2020).No standards exist for organizing and evaluating lab-based courses (Lassoued et al., 2020), which demotivates instructtors and students to continue regular online sessions (Zaman, 2020).Aforementioned discussion demonstrates that online education couldn't provide universal opportunities during COVID-19.Following these, some hypothesis have been raised.The restricted opportunities theory finds out the discrimination of public and private universities students that supports the research hypothesis.
H1-Online education during COVID-19 and recent heat wave create discrimination among students at public and private universities in Bangladesh.H2-The discrimination has a significant effect on academic and future career.

METHODOLOGY:
Researchers use research techniques to solve research problems in an orderly fashion.An investigation of how scientific research is done might be described as a subfield of this discipline (Kothari, 1990).It is critical that research methodologies be dependable and valid.A standardized procedure that is particular, sensitive, reproducible, and accurate is a dependable method (Staff and Carlsen, 2017).

Research Design
In order to get a better understanding of the meaningful and logical explanations of human behavior, thinking, and actions based on the subjective experiences, judgments, and opinions of public and private university students regarding the academic gap and its effect on the academic and professional career of the students, we conducted the study using the qualitative method (Abuhammad, 2020;Marvasti, 2004).This method helps us to comprehend the meaningful and logical explanations of human behavior, thinking, and actions.From the students' points of view, our methodology centered on gaining a knowledge of "how the online education during COVID-19 influences the academic and future career of university students attending public and private universities."The qualitative method allows us to collect authenticated human experiences in specific social circumstances, which are influenced by socioeconomic and politicocultural difficulties, so that we may understand complicated social issues that have a causal relationship to them (Lune and Berg, 2017; Maxwell, 2012).In addition to this, it enables us to comprehend "how the participants construct and contribute a feeling of online education to their regular life while the epidemic was in effect."

Study subjects
Using a purposive sampling strategy, we chose sixteen participants from two public and two private universities in Bangladesh's southwestern region, which is considered as a prominent academic hub in that area.The sample included eight male and eight female students (refer to Table 1).Student participants have to be enrolled in a regular graduate (Honors) program in order to be eligible.The selection approach made use of theoretical purposive sampling (Bryman, 2012) to achieve data saturation among students from both public and private universities.Furthermore, the number of informants was calculated by conducting face-to-face interviews with participants to acquire informed consent.

Interview outline
For this study, the interview guideline was designed after reviewing relevant literature, consulting with experts in the field, and conducting a pre-interview with a university student.The main thematic questions for the students were -(1) What kind of obstacles did the students encounter during online classes?(2) What kind of financial issues did they face for attending online classes?(3) How was the experience of their online education?(4) Did they able to overcome the problems?(5) What are the impacts of academic gap because of online education?

Data collection
Prior to conducting interviews, participants had preliminary conversations to arrange in-person sessions at times that worked for each of them.This method guaranteed uniformity in questions throughout all sessions and consistency in interviewers.A semistructured interview schedule was utilized to gather data related to the study queries.Additionally, participants were provided with a signed informed permission form through email.Prior to conducting interviews, the interviews were conducted in Bangla.
The in-person interview between the two individuals proceeded without any pauses or disruptions.Twelve to eighteen minutes was the average duration of each talk.With the participants' consent, all of the interviews were secretly recorded.Without providing a reason, participants were free to withdraw from the study whenever they wished.We could thus get information from the participants and maintain a cordial connection with them because we were in a neutral position.In order to ensure that the data was correct and free of prejudice, we took extra care during the interview and adhered to the principle of "unrestricted acceptance, attentive listening, and explanation."However, following the sixteenth interview, it appeared that the study had initially reached saturation.After the sixteenth interview, there was no more gathering of data.In a qualitative study, the depth of the data is more crucial for drawing generalizations than the number of samples, it is necessary to emphasize (Bryman, 2012).

RESULTS:
The author compiled important statements and organized them into themes.Thematic analysis, combined with reviewing narratives, was employed as methods to analyze the data.After each interview, the researcher identified key issues for initial analysis based on agreement among participants.Any inconsistencies raised during interviews were addressed and, in some cases, excluded after careful evaluation by the researcher.

Informant's profile
The study participants were selected from four universities in Khulna, which included both public and private establishments and represented a range of regional backgrounds (Table 1).Five of the informants lived in cities, five in rural areas, and six in suburban areas.Each participant came from a different socioeconomic background.Although the participants' demographic factors, including age, place of residence, and economic standing, varied, there were significant yet commonalities in the narratives collected through in-person, in-depth interviews.These commonalities made it easier to identify the study's emerging themes and emphasized the need for more qualitative research using in-depth interviews with students at both public and private universities.We identified six themes -(i) Knowledge of online education, (ii) Technical challenges of online education, (iii) Financial challenges of online education, (iv) Experiences of online education, (v) Solution of the problems of online education, and (vi) Academic gap and its impact in academic and future

Knowledge of online education
This theme represents the knowledge of online education among students of public and private universities and their families.It also represents student's family educational status, number of earning members, their beginning of online classes and their joining of online classes.In majority public university student's family, they are the most educated person in their family who are going to be a graduate.In most of the family of private universities students, their parents are the most educated persons.Majority of the participants have only one family member in their family and the earning member is their father.Some of the students have two or three earning members in his family.One of the participants has no earning members.The participants were not familiar to the online education in most of the cases.Online education was totally new for most of them.According to the participants of public universities, their online classes started around February to March 2021.But it is stated by private university students that their online classes started in May, 2020.Online education was new for most of the student as it was for every family.All participants received more or less support from family.In the case of some public university students, it has been found that their parents did not take it smoothly at first.After understanding later, their family tried to give proper support.One of our participants named Nurul (25) from Khulna University of Engineering and Technology said,

"At first, I did not get the support of the proper family. My parents thought I was wasting time on mobile phone. Later when they saw my teachers taking the classes regularly, they understood and then gave proper support."
The families of the private university participants were more aware about online education.All of the participants at private colleges said that they had adequate support from their families from the start.Not all participants could attend all of the online classes.Only 6 students attended all of the online classes.Other participants attended majority of the classes.They could not make it possible due to some problems they faced.Most of the participants were public university students suffering from network problems, device problems and electricity issues.One of our participants named Sifat (25)  But according to the statement of the private universities students, they haven't face any kinds of financial problem and all of them have mentioned that they haven't face any financial issues.In some cases, public university students needed financial support.In that case, according to them, they were given some support from the university authority which was not enough.Their families were not able to solve the financial issues or the loan given by the university was not enough so they tried to solve the financial issues by taking loans from other places.2 participants received loans provided by the university.Also, according to the statements of most of the public university students, the SIM or data pack given to them by the university did not work everywhere.Most of the students were not satisfied with their given support.According to Nurul ( 25

Experiences with online education
This fourth subject explores students' general experiences with online classes and exams, as well as their attitudes regarding these modalities.The majority of public university students had a terrible experience with online programs.They met a variety of problems, including network issues and gadget malfunctions.Sometimes the problem was too obvious to sustain attention.One thing the students were happy about was that their online classes were going.Ananna (24), a student of Khulna University of Engineering and Technology claimed, The online class experience was actually not so good for me.Since there was a network issue, I could not hear the teachers properly.I couldn't connect with them.Repeated buffering used to lose my concentration.When trying to understand something, the internet would go down, network issues would arise and it would not be understood.Over all experience was not so good." On the other hand, the experiences of online classes were average for the students of private universities students.They hadn't faced any technological problems but they mentioned about the lacking in holding concentration, lacking in keep concentration properly in classes.A participant named Usha (23) from North Western University said, "I found the online class experience to be average.Although learning is less in online classes compared to offline classes but that time should be considered.Online was the only way to keep the education system running when the entire world was brought to a standstill due to COVID-19 and physically attending classes was not possible.It is good that we were at least attached to the studies as the online education system was active.Our teachers were quite cooperative.They have come forward to solve any problem.If there was any difficulty in understanding the lessons, the teachers explained it later.They even provided class recordings." Majority of our participants of public and private universities stated that online exams made them feel good about ending their semester.Most of the students were happy in this term.Shakil (24), a participant from Khulna University of Engineering and Technology said, "Online exam experience was average.I completed the semester with online exam which was pretty good.But it was quite tough to write and finish the online exam in time.As our physical exam used to take more time than online exam, it was very difficult to finish writing.Besides, if the Wi-Fi is down or if the network is slow, many times I have to come to the courtyard after finishing writing and send the answer sheet.But it was the best thing to finish the semester even though it was one of the lockdowns at home."Some of the students of public universities had faced many problems.It was quite tough to attend online exams but they attended somehow.One of our participants, Humayra "Yes, I attended all of my online exams.But the online exam experience was not good at all.As I said there was a network issue so I couldn't submit even after completing some of the exams.Later the teachers had to be contacted and submitted.Also, I had to attend the exams sitting inside a tailor's shop in the market and it was a very bad experience.People were going back and forth inside the shop.I had to attend the exam from there.Exams with concentration had become a miserable affair.A few times people have even asked me whether I am attending an exam or writing something else during the exam.
Talking while writing an answer to a question loses the sequence.So overall I didn't have a good online exam experience.The only good thing is that the exams have been done and our academic gap has been reduced." According to the statements of private universities students, their experience of online exams was pretty good.At first, they faced some problems but later they got used to it.Munna, a participant from Northern University of Business and Technology stated, "Yes, participated in few semesters online exams.Completing the online exam was quite a challenging subject in time.Later I was able to adapt it.The best thing was that through online exams the semesters were ending one by one and we were slowly moving towards graduation."

Solution of the problems
This theme indicates the solution of the problems which are faced because of online education and about the flexibility which according to the students could have been done by the university authorities.
Among our participants, public university students were more likely to have problems.They tried to solve it in different ways.Those participants who had device problems tried to buy devices with loans and those who had network problems often bought data packs and attended classes outside their homes to solve network issues.Through these, they tried to solve their problems as much as possible.A participant from Khulna University named Sifat (25) mentioned, "Yes, I was able to overcome the problems I faced.
Basically, the problems that were internet issues are one of them.In order to solve internet problems, when there was no Wi-Fi, mobile data had to be bought and used.Also, when there was no network in the room, I had to buy a data pack and go to the roof for classes.

DISCUSSION:
The results of this study demonstrate that the family members of private university students were comparatively more knowledgeable about online learning than the family members of public universities.Students at private universities received more support from their families from the beginning.The majority of students at private institutions attended all of their online classes, whereas many students at public universities were unable to attend owing to network and device issues.The students of public universities could hardly sort their problems out but it was comparatively easy to solve for the private university's students.Private universities students could buy data packs as a backup for their family solvency.But it was quite a tough job to afford the expensive data packs for most of the public university's students.It was found that majority of the students of private universities had multiple devices to join the online classes but, in many cases, it was seen that many students of public universities had no sufficient device to join the online classes.The public university students faced financial crisis due to online education but it was not faced by the students of private universities.They were stable and sufficient to fulfil their wants needed for the online education.Some students of public universities needed financial supports for their continuity of online education.But the students of private universities were able to fill their needs.The experiences of online classes and exams were average for the students of public universities because of their network and device issues but it was quite a good experience for the private universities students as they faced less issues.The students of public universities had hardly overcome the issues but it was quite flexible to the students of private universities.Public universities students have faced more academic gap than the private universities students.As a result, they are delayed in completing their graduation and unable to apply to many job circulars as well as lag behind in terms of experience.They are quite disappointed thinking that they will have to suffer for it later in the future career.
Based on the restricted opportunities theory, individuals are seemed as innocent and flawless and it is the societal criteria to blame.The informants provided opinion similar to the theory.Public university students are lag behind than the private university students and for this reason the public university students blamed the lack of high-speed internet facilities, policy making of university authorities, family literacy, financial issues, geographical locations, availability of enough resources, affordability of electronic equipment etc.These observations support the first hypotheses that discrimination has created between the public and private university students regarding the online education system.Again, based on the informant's information, public university students cannot help being as student for more time than the private university students.As a result, their academic life is getting longer, job circulars are being missed.This observation supports the second hypotheses.In the end, it is found that both public and private universities students have attended the online education but private universities students had more family support and financial stability from the beginning and they are ahead of public university students in academics and future careers.

CONCLUSION:
The purpose of this study was to determine the efficiency of online education during COVID-19 comparing public and private universities in Khulna, as well as to assess the academic and prospective career discrimination experienced by students at public and private universities as a result of online education.The COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on the education system.It has caused a number of concerns, including emotional stress, discrimination based on device troubles, internet problems, financial problems, and so on.The fundamental distinction was that private universities made quick decisions to cope with the issue.As a result, private university students graduated before their public university counterparts.Students at public universities fell behind in their careers as a result of prejudice.It causes emotional instability, and the anxiety of falling behind in future employment opportunities is more prevalent among public university students.Public universities can reform their rules in this way to provide a fluent education system for their students, as well as a policy to help their students in the event of unexpected situations and to improve the academic curriculum.

Table 1 :
Demographic profile of the participants.
*Identities used in this table are pseudonyms

Academic disparity and its effects on education and the future
The students were concerned and tensed about the impact of the academic gap.Impact of the academic gap is dire according to our public university participants.They have to face it more and will have to face it in the future.Their friends who got admission in private universities entered the job after completing the graduation.They are backward in terms of experience in the field of employment and could not participate in many job tests.