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Affiliation of 7 colleges with DU

No progress yet in deadlock


Published : 22 Aug 2019 09:31 PM | Updated : 03 Sep 2020 11:46 AM

No solution is still in sight to the crisis has been created centring the issue of affiliation of seven public colleges of the capital to Dhaka University (DU). It is now about a month since DU authorities gave the assurance to solve the problem within 15 days after a hasty students’ protest in July. The protesting DU students at that time warned the authorities that they would go for tougher movement and padlock the campus like before if the recommendation committee fails to find a rational solution immediately.

The spokesperson of the movement who is refusing to allow DU to affiliate the seven listed colleges, Shakil Mia told Bangladesh Post on Thursday, "The university authorities took 15 days and later one month time to solve the problem but there seems to be no progress. We will take our decision after consulting students immediately.”

The majority of Dhaka University students in July flared up protesting with the demand for early scrapping of affiliated seven colleges. The protesters padlocked all academic and administrative buildings for three days from July 22 to press home their demands. After that protest, the DU authorities assured the students to provide a rational solution to the problem within 15 working days and formed an 11-member committee on July 24 with DU Pro-Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Samad as the convener of the committee.

The committee first met on July 29, and failed to find any solution and then sought one month to submit the report. This correspondent repeatedly tried to contact DU pro-VC (Administration) Dr Muhammad Samad on phone he was not available. DUCSU VP Nurul Haque Nur said, "We met before the Eid vacation to find a rational solution where committee members gave their recommendation but no decision has been taken yet,"

Earlier on February 17, 2017, the government, by an order, affiliated Dhaka College, Eden Girls College, Government Shaheed Suhrawardy College, Kabi Nazrul Government College, Begum Badrunnesa Government Women’s College, Mirpur Government Bangla College and Government Titumir College with Dhaka University.

As per the directive, DU was to carry out all academic activities of theses colleges, including conducting of the admission process, holding of the examinations and developing the syllabuses. But the university was neither prepared nor adequately staffed to handle the added burden. As a result, the DU administration is failing to conduct exams and publish results on time, causing sufferings to students of both the university and the colleges.

Students of the colleges say they are still facing session jams because their exams are not being timely held and results are getting delayed. In August 2014, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked the education ministry to re-affiliate the colleges with respective public universities. But differences of opinion between National University and some public universities delayed the process.

In November 2016, the education ministry decided to start the process by handing over the seven colleges to DU with the president’s approval. The goal was to improve the quality of education, reduce pressure on the NU, and put an end to session jams at the colleges. The NU was established in 1992 to take over the affiliated colleges of the public universities in Dhaka, Rajshahi, and Chittagong. At the time, it was said NU would help break the cycle of session jams and improve education standards. Currently, Dhaka University has 124 affiliated colleges including seven colleges and almost has 20 lakh, 57 thousand 594 students.