NUPSSP Blueprint › Evidence & Downloads › Data Gaps (35) & RTI
What we do not know — and how to ask
Data Gaps (35) & RTI Requests
Thirty-five documented data gaps with holding institutions and priorities, and six Right-to-Information requests drafted to the review-and-file standard.
The 35-gap register
Honest research states what it does not know. The gap register is the programme's institutional memory of missing data: what is missing, why it matters, which institution holds it, whether Right-to-Information is the recommended route, and the priority. Missing values are NA everywhere in this package — never zero, never invented. The register is organized by research phase.
17
Phase-1 gaps — universities, enrollment, graduates, government workforce
CSV 08
12
Phase-3 gaps — feasibility-model inputs
CSV 26
6
Phase-4 gaps — finance, legal and operational prerequisites
CSV 34
6
RTI request drafts ready for review and filing (RTI Act 2009)
CSV 10
Phase 1 — national baseline gaps (GAP-01…17)
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| ID | Missing dataset | Description | Holding authority | RTI? | Priority | Request specification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GAP-01 | Annual university graduates by sector and year (10-year series) | UGC annual reports contain graduate counts but full historical series for public vs private split is not consolidated publicly; only 2021 aggregate (344,528) verified | University Grants Commission (UGC) | Yes | High | Request: university-wise graduation statistics 2014-2024, all annual reports |
| GAP-02 | New admissions by year (public vs private, 10-year series) | Admissions distinguished from enrollment not published as consolidated series; only 2023 BANBEIS first-year enrollment (49,883 in 50 publics) found | BANBEIS + UGC | Yes | High | Request: annual first-year enrollment by university type |
| GAP-03 | Per-university enrollment for all 173 institutions | UGC annual reports contain per-university tables; not published as machine-readable data | UGC | Yes | Medium | Request: university-wise student statistics (latest report) |
| GAP-04 | Annual government recruitment totals (nationwide) | No single official total of all annual government appointments exists publicly; BCS + DPE figures are partial | Ministry of Public Administration + Ministry of Finance | Yes | High | Request: annual joining/appointment counts 2014-2024 by ministry |
| GAP-05 | Annual retirement totals | No annual retirement counts published by any agency; only World Bank c.2015 estimate (~40,000/year) | Ministry of Public Administration (pension wing) + Ministry of Finance | Yes | High | Request: annual retirement/superannuation counts by grade and ministry |
| GAP-06 | Ministry-wise sanctioned/filled/vacant posts | Statistics of Government Employees 2025 has sector-level aggregates; ministry-wise tables not publicly released in full | Ministry of Public Administration | Yes | High | Request: ministry-wise sanctioned and filled posts |
| GAP-07 | Complete directory of all departments/directorates/attached offices (~300+) | Cabinet Division maintains the official register; public web directory incomplete | Cabinet Division | Yes | Medium | Request: complete organizational register under Rules of Business |
| GAP-08 | Armed forces personnel numbers (aggregate) | Reliable aggregate active-duty figures not published by MoD | Ministry of Defense / Armed Forces Division | Partial (may be exempted on security grounds) | Low | International estimates exist (IISS) but not official |
| GAP-09 | Police and uniformed services year-wise recruitment | Police recruitment announcements exist but annual joining totals not consolidated | Bangladesh Police (Home Ministry) | Yes | Medium | Request: annual constable + officer joining numbers |
| GAP-10 | Health sector annual recruitment (doctors, nurses, staff) | DGHS recruitment circulars exist; annual appointment totals not consolidated publicly | DGHS / Ministry of Health and Family Welfare | Yes | Medium | 35,000 vacancies flagged 2026; recruitment in progress |
| GAP-11 | Secondary school teacher recruitment annual totals | DSHE recruitment cycles irregular; consolidated annual appointment counts unavailable | DSHE / Ministry of Education | Yes | Medium | NA |
| GAP-12 | Employee category definitions and headcount by class/grade | Grade 1-20 vacancy distribution exists (2025); full headcount by grade not published | Ministry of Public Administration | Yes | Medium | NA |
| GAP-13 | State-owned enterprise employment totals | SOEs employ significant numbers; no consolidated public headcount series | Ministry of Finance (Finance Division) | Yes | Medium | Annual reports of individual SOEs partial |
| GAP-14 | University teacher counts by year (public vs private) | Partial figures: private 16,074 (2018), 15,393 (2021); public 16,399 (2023 per BANBEIS-citing study) | UGC + BANBEIS | Yes | Low | Series incomplete |
| GAP-15 | Graduates by discipline, degree level, and gender | UGC collects; not publicly consolidated | UGC + BANBEIS | Yes | Medium | NA |
| GAP-16 | Faculty/department/program structure for 167 of 173 universities (Part B program inventory) | Phase 1 verified the academic structure of 6 universities (DU, BUET, RU, CUET, BRAC U, NSU) from official or documented secondary sources; the remaining 167 institutions require individual research against official university websites and UGC handbooks | University Grants Commission + individual universities | Yes | High | Request: university-wise faculty, department and program registers with durations and credit requirements; see 09b_program_coverage.csv for the precise per-university coverage status |
| GAP-17 | Program duration and semester structures (Part B program-level detail) | Even for the 6 covered universities, semester structure and graduation requirements are published only in scattered prospectus pages; a consolidated program-duration database requires the UGC Universities of Bangladesh handbook series | University Grants Commission | Yes | Medium | Request: program duration, semester count, credit requirements per program per university |
Phase 3 — feasibility-model gaps (GAP-18…29)
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| ID | Missing dataset | Description | Holding authority | RTI? | Priority | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GAP-18 | University enrollment by division/district | Allocation of placements by geography requires enrollment distribution; only national totals verified | UGC + BANBEIS + universities | Yes - RTI to UGC: university-wise enrollment by district for latest 3 annual reports | High | Feeds capacity model ASM-08 |
| GAP-19 | National University enrollment by program year and course type | Final-year pool estimates (PL-09) rest on the uniform-4-year assumption; NU pass/honours/masters decomposition unpublished | National University (NU) | Yes - RTI to NU: enrollment by year of study and program type | High | Most decision-relevant single dataset for the 300,000 question |
| GAP-20 | Verified inventory of union digital centers and their staffing | Digital-government placement capacity (sector split assumes 8%) | ICT Division / a2i | Yes - RTI to ICT Division: functional status and staffing of union digital centers by upazila | Medium | NA |
| GAP-21 | Supervision capacity: officers available for training by institution type | Hosting capacity is a guess (ASM-06, ASM-11 to ASM-16) without knowing actual officer availability | Ministry of Public Administration + Cabinet Division | Yes - RTI: sanctioned/filled posts with training function at upazila and union level | High | NA |
| GAP-22 | Service-delivery baseline statistics (processing times, complaint volumes) | M&E indicators EFF-01/EFF-03 have no pre-program baseline in most offices | Cabinet Division GRS + service-providing ministries | Yes - RTI: GRS complaints and resolution statistics by office for last 3 years | High | Pre-registration of baselines before pilots is essential for attribution |
| GAP-23 | Program cost benchmarks (platform builds, insurance premiums, training delivery costs) | Financial model itemized but parameterized from analogues, not vendor quotes | ICT Division (platform costs); Insurance companies; NSD/NAEM (training costs) | Partial - RTI for past e-governance project costs; market quotation for insurance | Medium | Model precision improves materially with these |
| GAP-24 | Formal confirmation of the National Service Ordinance 1970 status (commencement notification? repeal?) | Report concludes dormant/possibly repealed from textual and inventory evidence; formal status needs Law Ministry confirmation | Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs | Yes - RTI: whether any Gazette notification under s.1(3) of the 1970 Ordinance was ever issued; current validity | High | Determines whether any legacy authority exists (report concludes none usable) |
| GAP-25 | Section-level verification of Private Universities Act 2010 and individual public university acts | Programme-approval requirement verified via secondary legal analysis; exact sections and amendment status unverified | Ministry of Law (bdlaws full texts) | No - publicly available; task is legal research hours, not data access | Medium | Phase 4 legal drafting prerequisite |
| GAP-26 | Inventory of existing government internship/placement frameworks and their legal instruments | NSP (2010) scale and current status, National Internship Programme terms, circular-level rules all partially documented | Ministry of Public Administration; MY Sports (DYD); ICT Division | Yes - RTI: NSP participant numbers by year; National Internship Programme stipend terms | High | Domestic precedent sizing |
| GAP-27 | ACC complaint and case statistics (baseline context) | GOV-01 indicator design benefits from knowing existing complaint volumes and verification outcomes | Anti-Corruption Commission | Partial - ACC annual reports may cover; RTI for granular data | Medium | NA |
| GAP-28 | Host institution physical capacity (workspace, sanitation, safety) audit | Even with officers available, buildings may not absorb batches | Cabinet Division / Ministry of Public Administration | Partial - sample RTI to selected DC offices and upazilas | Medium | Pilot design should include a physical capacity survey |
| GAP-29 | Bangladesh national budget totals for cost-share context | Expressing program cost as share of national budget requires the verified FY2025-26 budget document | Ministry of Finance | No - public documents; simply not yet retrieved this phase | Low | NA |
Phase 4 — proposal prerequisites (GAP-30…35)
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| ID | Missing dataset | Description | Holding authority | RTI? | Priority | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GAP-30 | University-level income and expenditure statements (all 57 public universities + representative private sample) | Affordability analysis rests on DU (detailed), system aggregate (Tk 10,802 crore), and UGC per-student figures; institution-by-institution statements unpublished | UGC + Ministry of Education + individual universities | Yes - RTI to UGC: university-wise income, expenditure and grant statements, last 3 fiscal years | High | Required before finalizing per-university cost allocation in Phase 2 expansion |
| GAP-31 | Private University Act 2010 full statutory text (s.42 fee provisions) + 2023 amendment gazette | Fee-change approval requirement verified through commentary only; precise section text and amendment wording needed for the enabling instrument | Ministry of Law (bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd) + Ministry of Education | No - public statute; direct full-text verification sufficient | High | Legal team must read the operative text before drafting fee-prohibition clauses |
| GAP-32 | Formal legal opinion on student placement labor status | Whether service-semester students could be deemed workers under any statute; liability for workplace injury beyond insurance | Law firms / law faculties (formal opinion); Ministry of Labour | No - commission a formal legal opinion | High | Blocks final design of insurance and liability framework |
| GAP-33 | Private university sector financial statements | Trust accounts and operating margins unpublished; sector revenue estimated from fee schedules only | UGC (private university supervision) + individual trusts | Yes - RTI to UGC: aggregated private-university financial returns | High | Required to set financial-capacity entry criteria for private participation |
| GAP-34 | National University college-by-college finance and capacity data | College enrollment, staffing and finances determine any future NU opt-in design | National University + Ministry of Education | Yes - RTI to NU: college-wise enrollment, staffing and income for affiliated colleges | Medium | Only needed if Phase 3 review opens NU participation |
| GAP-35 | Actual placement unit costs from comparable programs | No Bangladesh precedent at scale for semester-length government placements; all unit costs are planning estimates | Ministries running internship programs (ICT Division, DYD, BMDC internship) | Yes - RTI to ICT Division and Ministry of Youth and Sports: internship program unit costs | Medium | Pilot Phase 1 will generate primary data; refine model after pilot |
The two gaps that matter most
GAP-18 (university enrollment by division/district) and GAP-19 (National University enrollment by year of study and programme type) are the most decision-relevant datasets in the entire package: the 130,178 ceiling (PL-14), the sector splits, and every geographic allocation rule rest on assumptions these datasets would replace with measurement. RTI requests are drafted for both.
Six ready-to-file RTI requests
The Right to Information Act 2009 (sections 7 and 8) provides the lawful route to close the priority gaps. Six requests are drafted to review-and-file standard — each names the responsible authority, the exact information requested, the years, the required breakdowns, the preferred format, and why public records are insufficient. Filing fee precedent: BDT 20 (treasury chalan code 1-0742-0000-2641).
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| ID | Responsible authority | Subject | Information requested | Years | Breakdowns | Format | Why public records are insufficient |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RTI-01 | Ministry of Public Administration (MoPA) | Serving government employees; approved (sanctioned), filled and vacant positions | 1. Total serving government employees under the ministries and divisions as of 30 June for each year 2014-2024, by ministry/division. 2. Total approved (sanctioned) posts, filled posts, and vacant posts as of 30 June for each year 2014-2024, by ministry/division. 3. The same three indicators by occupational class/grade (Grades 1-20) as of the latest reporting date. | 2014-2024 (annual) | By ministry/division and by grade | CSV or Excel; scanned PDF acceptable | Statistics of Government Employees 2025 publishes only sector-level aggregates and selected grade tables; the ministry-wise and 10-year series are not publicly released (GAP-04, GAP-06, GAP-12). |
| RTI-02 | Ministry of Public Administration - Pension Wing | Annual government retirement totals | 1. Number of government employees retired on superannuation (age 59), by calendar year 2014-2024, by ministry/division. 2. Retirements separately from resignations, dismissals, deaths in service, and contract expiries for the same years. 3. Number of new pensioners added to the civil-service pension roll each year 2014-2024. | 2014-2024 (annual) | By ministry/division and separation type | CSV or Excel | No Bangladeshi agency publishes annual retirement totals; the only citable figure is a World Bank estimate of ~40,000/year circa 2015 (GAP-05). |
| RTI-03 | Ministry of Public Administration (MoPA) | Annual government recruitment (new entrants) | 1. Number of persons who joined government service (first appointment) under ministries and divisions, by calendar year 2014-2024, by ministry/division. 2. Of these, how many joined through BCS cadre recruitment, non-cadre recruitment, and direct departmental recruitment. 3. Number of appointment letters issued versus persons actually joined, where maintained. | 2014-2024 (annual) | By ministry/division and recruitment channel | CSV or Excel | No consolidated national recruitment total exists publicly; BCS figures cover only the BPSC cadre pipeline (GAP-04). |
| RTI-04 | University Grants Commission (UGC) of Bangladesh | University enrollment, admissions and graduation series | 1. University-wise total enrolled students, newly admitted students, and graduates, for each academic year 2014-15 through 2023-24, for public and private universities separately. 2. Graduates by degree level (bachelor/honours, master, MPhil, PhD) for the most recent three academic years. 3. Graduates by discipline (faculty group) and gender, where compiled. | Academic years 2014-15 to 2023-24 | By university, sector (public/private), degree level, discipline, gender | CSV or Excel; printed annual-report tables acceptable | UGC annual reports contain these tables but the full historical series and per-university tables are not published in machine-readable form; only scattered figures are reported in press coverage (GAP-01, GAP-02, GAP-03, GAP-15). |
| RTI-05 | Cabinet Division | Complete register of government organizations | 1. The complete list of ministries, divisions, departments, directorates, attached offices and subordinate offices of the Government of Bangladesh as maintained under the Rules of Business, with each body's parent ministry/division. 2. Statutory bodies, autonomous and semi-autonomous institutions, and state-owned enterprises with their parent ministries. | Current register (2024-2026) | By organizational type and parent ministry | CSV or Excel | The public Doptor web directory lists top-level bodies but the complete ~300+ organizational register is not publicly released in full (GAP-07). |
| RTI-06 | Finance Division, Ministry of Finance | State-owned enterprise employment | 1. Total number of employees of state-owned enterprises (corporations and government-owned companies), by enterprise, for each fiscal year 2014-15 through 2023-24. 2. Approved posts versus filled posts for the same enterprises and years. | FY 2014-15 to FY 2023-24 | By enterprise | CSV or Excel | No consolidated public SOE headcount series exists; individual SOE annual reports are partial (GAP-13). |
Full request texts (letter format) are included in the Phase-1 report appendix and the master workbook.Source data: research CSV dataset (see Downloads)