Universities as arenas of oppression: a student-centered perspective on higher education in Bangladesh
本研究重新定义学生满意度为诊断结构性压迫的透镜，基于孟加拉国一所公立大学238名学生的调查，揭示学术卓越、学生发展和学习环境中的系统性忽视与制度脆弱性。
Higher education is widely regarded as a pathway to personal development, social mobility, and national progress. Yet for many students in the Global South, it reproduces entrenched inequalities, hierarchical power relations, epistemic exclusion, and pressures for conformity that restrict agency and intellectual freedom. The aim of this study is to reconceptualize student (dis)satisfaction not as a narrow reaction to instructional quality, or curriculum design but as a diagnostic lens for understanding deeper structural ‘unfreedoms’ that undermine the emancipatory promise of university education. Using a modified grounded theory approach and a consensus building process, we analyzed qualitative responses from 238 students at a public university in Bangladesh, drawn from a mixed-method online survey conducted before June 2021. The analysis traced the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions of students’ experiences, revealing three interrelated domains – academic excellence, student development, and the learning environment through which systemic neglect and institutional fragilities manifest. Students reported disillusionment, anxiety, diminished confidence, withdrawal, alienation, and constrained opportunities, reflecting effects of oppression that curtailed their ability to participate meaningfully, express ideas without fear, and shape their educational trajectories. Anchored in Sen’s capabilities approach, Freire’s critical pedagogy, Durkheimian functionalism, and Oliver’s expectancy–disconfirmation theory, the study demonstrates that student (dis)satisfaction reflects structural oppression rather than isolated service deficits. The originality of this work lies in reframing satisfaction as an indicator of institutional freedom and social justice within higher education systems in the Global South, offering a conceptual and empirical foundation for rethinking how universities understand and respond to student experiences.