Female students at Dhaka University announced that they will launch a sit-in protest and symbolic hunger strike on Monday morning outside the vice-chancellor's residence.
The announcement was made during a press conference at the Dhaka University Journalists Association office at 5pm on Sunday.
The students are demanding that the university become more female-friendly and fully residential.
Israt Jahan Imu, a student from the Management and Information Systems department and a resident of Shamsunnahar Hall, read out a statement explaining that while they had submitted a memorandum with "seven demands" to the vice-chancellor, the administration claimed it couldn't meet most of them.
"From tomorrow at 10am, we will begin our hunger strike to press for our demands," Imu said.
Their demands include full residential accommodation for first-year students, the elimination of overcrowded "Gonorooms," temporary housing arrangements until new halls are built, the construction of new female dormitories on the main campus, access to halls for non-residential female students, ending the double-bed system, and relocating Bangladesh-Kuwait Maitree Hall and Bangamata Hall to the main campus with new buildings.
The housing crisis has worsened as female enrollment has grown over the last twelve years.
Currently, about 57% of female students must live off-campus due to insufficient accommodation.
The five existing female halls are severely overcrowded, housing almost double their intended capacity and straining facilities like libraries, dining halls, and common spaces.
The situation is expected to worsen in the current academic session.
As a stopgap measure, the university has implemented a "bunk bed system" in one hall.
The university administration did announce plans for a new female dormitory in a notice issued on Saturday.
The proposed "Bangladesh-China Friendship Hall," to be built with Chinese government funding, awaits ministry approval, with an estimated cost of Tk244 crore.