A shortage of seats at universities means that little more than 8 percent of Bangladesh’s high-school graduates have access to higher education, according to a report by the country’s university regulator, the University Grants Commission, that was described today in The New Nation, a Bangladeshi newspaper.

The regulator’s 20-year strategic plan for higher education in Bangladesh says that at least 28 new universities will have to be established to raise the system’s capacity to 15 percent of high-school graduates, the newspaper said.

Bangladesh has established only two public universities in the last three years, while the number of high-school graduates has risen 17 percent, said another report earlier this month.

Nazrul Islam, chairman of the commission, said the number of seats at universities would have to grow with the number of high-school graduates.

“No doubt, time has come to take steps for this,” Mr. Islam said. “But we have to maintain the quality of education. Otherwise, the purpose of higher education will be defeated.” —Shailaja Neelakantan