Eminent educationist and writer Prof Muhammad Zafar Iqbal on Tursday resigned from Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST).
He resigned from his post as professor of Department of Computer Science and Engineering. His wife Dr Yasmeen Haque also resigned as a physics professor.
Dr Yasmeen told the Dhaka Tribune that they had resigned because of a dispute over the undergraduate admission system at the university.
She said: “This is the [right] time for us to move away from the university.”
In a written statement, they said when Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid and Finance Minister AMA Muhith sided against integrated system, they thought that they needed to consider everything in a new way. They said the decision would harm the students.
They submitted the resignations after a meeting which decided to postpone the integrated admission tests agreed recently between the SUST and Jessore Science and Technology University (JSTU), a cause Prof Iqbal has strongly been advocating for. The tests were supposed to be held on November 30.
The examination committee had been preparing for the combined admission tests for the past few months.However, last week, a group called “Sylhetbashi” protested against the proposed system claiming that it would be injustice towards the people of Sylhet.
The university authorities on Monday sat with distinguish persons of Sylhet to discuss the matter, and on Tursday decided to postpone the tests.
After learning the news, students demonstrated on the campus in the evening in front of the vice-chancellor’s office. SUST Vice-Chancellor Aminul Haque Bhuiyan could not be reached for comments on the issue. The education minister declined to comment on this.