Students from the seven colleges affiliated with the University of Dhaka have announced a three-day program demanding the establishment of an independent university.
They will begin these programs on Sunday.
A press conference was held at the Shahid ANM Najib Uddin Khan Khurram Auditorium of Dhaka College on Saturday, where the Seven College University Transformation Team announced the program.
The planned activities include graffiti painting on their respective campuses on Sunday, departmental outreach on Monday, and a protest march and rally at Dhaka College on Tuesday.
During the press conference, the students said that in 2017, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina directed the affiliation of the seven government colleges in the capital with the University of Dhaka.
However, this decision was completely unplanned, resulting in extreme chaos in the academic lives of the college students. Instead of improving the quality of education, students have been deprived of proper educational opportunities due to the discriminatory policies and administrative weaknesses of the Dhaka University administration, they said.
Previously, students from the seven colleges blocked the Science Lab and Nilkhet intersections with the same demands.
They later lifted the blockade after giving a 24-hour ultimatum to fulfill their three demands:
- An independent commission for the seven colleges must be formed immediately.
- This commission should examine various issues and prepare a framework within 30 days.
- There should be no session jams during the establishment of the independent university. Until the university is formed, Dhaka University should continue its operations in a way that prevents session jams.
The students argue that despite being affiliated with Dhaka University, no significant steps have been taken to address their issues. They are suffering from a lack of independent institutional identity, as well as from issues such as insufficient quality teachers, limited research opportunities, absence of a specific academic calendar, unclear syllabi, severe session jams, delays in result publication, flawed results, and an unprecedented number of students failing.
They claim that the unplanned decisions have led to extreme chaos in their educational experiences. They demand the establishment of a new independent university, separate from Dhaka University, to put an end to this discrimination.
