Authorities at several private universities have asked the government to extend the deadline of relocating to their own campuses, which ends in September this year.
The deadline has already been extended twice since the Private University Act 2010 was implemented, which states a private university must have its own premises.
After the law was enacted in 2010, the government set the end of 2012 as the deadline for all private universities to move to their own campuses, which was first extended to 2013, and again to September this year.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid has put stress on maintaining the deadline and said the government would take action against the universities that fail to transfer to their own campus on time.
While several universities have already been running their academic operations from their own campuses, many others are still in their rented premises and are highly unlikely to be able to have their own campuses ready by the deadline.
The authorities of those universities, however, claim they will be able to move to their permanent base soon and are trying to convince the government to extend the deadline.
“We already have our own campus in Dhanmondi Road 27. We have another campus in Kalabagan which we are running in a rented building. We have a plot at Purbachal in the capital where we are planning to build our permanent campus. But building an entire campus takes time,” said Prof Iftekhar Ghani Chowdhury, vice-chancellor of State University Bangladesh.
“We also have to take the convenience of our current students into consideration. I hope everyone joins in as we ask for an extension of deadline.”
Prof Md Golam Samdani Fakir, VC of Green University, told the Dhaka Tribune: “We have already purchased 50 bighas of land in Purbachal to build our campus. The campus is still under construction, but we are putting all our efforts to finish the construction. We have sent our progess report to the UGC. I hope the deadline will be extended.”
In this regard, Brac University is several steps ahead. “We are relocating to a new campus at Rajendrapur in Savar. But we plan to build another campus at Badda in the capital, where we will have residential facilities for our students,” said Prof Syed Saad Andaleeb, VC of Brac University.
Eastern University has had some trouble with Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) in acquiring land for its permanent campus in Ashulia. “There are many procedures in Rajuk that are taking time. We also have plans to build student dormitories and bus services for the students to commute to and from the campus. We hope our campus will be ready enough by March next year that we can move at least one department,” Prof Abdur Rab, VC of the university, told the Dhaka Tribune.
“Out of the 52 private universities who were instructed to establish their own campuses, 17 have already moved to their campuses, but the rest are asking for more time even though the deadline has been extended more than once by the government,” said Jesmin Parvin, assitant director at University Grants Commission (UGC).
Md Khaled, secretary of the UGC, said there will be a meeting among the education minister, other officials and the vice-chancellors of private universities that are seeking deadline extension.
“We are meeting to discuss several issues, but our main topic will be relocation of the universities to their own campuses. We will come to a decision at the meeting.”