Although it is claimed that private education is a recent phenomenon in the developing world, criteria of private educations and their schemata have evolved out of historical practices. The introduction of private education in South Asia was implemented by a process known as 'Gru-Shiso'. An individual with a good analytical knowledge was considered as `Gru' and his or her followers were known as 'Shiso'. Exercising knowledge through Gru-Shiso had always been a fundamental part of education in Bangladesh. With the gradual increase of demand for education in contemporary Bangladesh, there has been an increase in private education provision though most acknowledge that education should be the fundamental concern of public policy. In Bangladesh, education is considered as the weapon of development and it is important to ensure the equal right of every individual to have access to education. However, with the advantage of a sound financial background, privileged individuals are not only accessing better quality education, but also gain a better quality of life through improved access to better quality fundamental goods and rights. The recent expansion of private higher education has thus not only opened the door for the privileged to access better quality education, but it has helped those within the elite that would not normally get access to higher education the means by which to enter this form of provision. This has had significant impact on the quality of HE and research in Bangladesh. It is important thus that issues of governance and regulation with the private HE sector be addressed since it affects the whole HE system. Earlier, private education was provided on a very small scale and was not a major concern of public policy. However, its recent expansion has become a cause for major concern. The public policies currently available, particularly with regard to governance and regulatory control, are aimed at governing public education and private education lacks adequate rules and regulations. A further problem in Bangladesh is that the ruling elite do not always confirm to the rules and regulations of the state system. As the main consumers of private education this means that private education provision often lacks the governance and control to make it an effective form of provision. Thus the huge responsibility of public policy is to ensure a regulatory environment that is able to deal with these concerns. The main contention of the thesis is to argue for the development of a PHEC that will fulfil this kind of function.