Dhaka University (DU) is going to open up its dormitories for residential students in the first week of October.
This is the third time the university authorities are setting a date to reopen the halls. Previous attempts to reopen on March 13 and May 17 ran into impediments caused by a persistent Covid-19 pandemic.
The Provost Standing Committee of the university came up with the decision on Tuesday following a meeting chaired by the university Vice Chancellor (VC) Prof M Akhtaruzzaman.
Confirming the matter, a member of the committee and Provost of Sir AF Rahman Hall, Prof KM Saiful Islam Khan, told Dhaka Tribune that only honours final year (seventh semester) and masters (first semester) students would initially be given the opportunity to return to the halls.
Exams will be conducted physically as arranging virtual exams is not possible, according to the provosts of different halls. They noted that as many as 25% of students of the university were not able to follow their classes due to poor internet coverage in remote villages.
“Two weeks will be needed to finish the exams of the honours seventh semester and masters first semester students. After that they will be requested to leave the dormitories so that we can give a similar opportunity to the third, second and first-year students of the honours class,” said Prof Saiful Islam Khan.
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All 18 hall authorities of the university had been instructed to complete the due renovation works of the dormitories by September 10, he added.
He also said: “There is a finding that 40% of the students of the university have been vaccinated with both doses. All residential students who want to be in the dormitories after their reopening are being asked to get vaccinated with double doses by September 15.”
Meanwhile, on Tuesday morning the University Teachers’ Network warned all university authorities to begin the process of a reopening of the campuses by the first week of September. Otherwise, it said, the teachers of this network would start taking token classes in open places as part of a symbolic protest through maintaining health guidelines.
The left-leaning student organization Bangladesh Chhatra Union, has demanded the immediate reopening of the dormitories. The demand was voiced at a human chain at the base of Raju memorial sculpture of DU’s TSC on Tuesday afternoon.
