Issue 7 Colleges

When Issue 7 colleges?

The seven colleges are Dhaka College, Eden Mohila College, Begum Badrunnesa Government College, Government Bangla College, Kabi Nazrul Government College, and Government Titumir College. About 2 lakh regular and irregular students are enrolled in graduate and post-graduate programs at these colleges.

The existing students of the colleges would continue their studies under the DU administration, according to the decisions made yesterday.

DU Vice-Chancellor Prof Niaz Ahmed Khan made the after an emergency meeting with the principals of the affiliated colleges at his office yesterday.

"The DU administration will ensure that the education of students currently enrolled in the university's ongoing academic programmes is not adversely affected," said the VC after the meeting.

The meeting decided that an expert committee, formed by the education ministry on December 29 last year, would manage the activities of the academic year from 2024-2025, according to a press release of the DU.

The release said the committee would decide on the number of seats, admission fees, and other relevant issues from the 2024-2025 session in line with the demands of the students.

The decision came in the face of a 24-hour ultimatum given by students of the seven colleges yesterday demanding the separation of academic and administrative ties between DU and the colleges. They issued the ultimatum after clashes broke out between students of DU and seven colleges late Sunday and early yesterday.

Hours after the announcement of the decisions, the students of seven colleges told this newspaper that they saw the decision positively as affiliating the colleges with the university had only aggravated the academic problems of nearly two lakh students.

They, however, said they were still uncertain over their future.

In a press briefing around 7:00pm yesterday, the students issued the government and authorities concerned a fresh 24-hour ultimatum to fulfil their two key demands, including the resignation of DU Pro-Vice-Chancellor Prof Mamun Ahmed, who they claimed misbehaved with a group of students of the seven colleges on Sunday afternoon.

The students demanded the immediate withdrawal of police personnel involved in the assault on students.

The students warned of boycotting classes and exams if the two demands within 24 hours. They also threatened to lay siege to the New Market Police Station and block DU buses from using their college areas.

The seven colleges are Dhaka College, Eden Mohila College, Begum Badrunnesa Government College, Government Bangla College, Kabi Nazrul Government College, and Government Titumir College. About 2 lakh regular and irregular students are enrolled in graduate and post-graduate programmes at these colleges.

The colleges were affiliated with the National University but were tied to the DU in 2017.

According to DU insiders, the university was not ready to deal with the extra load of administrative work since the beginning.

The lack of necessary resources and preparation at DU worsened the got more complicated as the years ticked by.

Since 2017, the students of the seven colleges have been demonstrating because of the problems they were facing. Recently, they started demanding their affiliation with the DU be ended.

DU insiders said the university authorities were "happy" to sever the ties.

However, it is the academic and administrative activities of these seven colleges.

Sources in the education ministry said the government is considering establishing a separate university or higher education institution for these colleges.

They said the University Grants Commission (UGC) has already held several meetings with the college students about this.

A senior UGC official figured out various "models", but none was finalised.

Dhaka College Principal Prof AKM Elias said the seven colleges would neither be with DU nor National University.

"A separate framework will be developed for these colleges upon consultation with teachers and educationists. However, there has been no discussion about how this would be," he told reporters after yesterday's meeting.

Asked about the students' demand for the resignation of the DU pro-vice-chancellor, the principal said, "We have presented all six demands of the students. The issues were discussed, but decisions regarding resignations or similar matters are beyond our jurisdiction."

On Sunday night, students of the seven colleges and DU were locked in sporadic clashes at the Nilkhet intersection. The clash continued until 1:00am yesterday with police reportedly lobbing sound grenades to disperse them.

Border Guard of Bangladesh (BGB) personnel were also deployed.

The situation normalised around 1:30am.

The DU had to suspend all exams and classes at the university for yesterday.

Before the establishment of the National University in 1992, the seven colleges were affiliated with the DU.

After it was formed, the National University took over the responsibilities of the colleges and other colleges affiliated with other public universities.

In August 2014, then-former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had the education ministry reaffiliate the colleges with respective public universities.

The education ministry in November 2016 decided to start the process by handing over the seven colleges to DU.

On February 17, 2017, the seven colleges affiliated with the DU. The goal was to improve the quality of pressure on the National University and reduce session jams!

After the re-affiliation, delays in announcing examination schedules, conducting examinations, and publishing results became serious.

Since 2017, college students have taken to the streets several times demanding an end to session jams, publication of flawless results on time, establishment of an administrative building for them, publication of academic calendar, holding examinations on time, and fair evaluation of answer scripts.

Sources said that a "personal rivalry" between the then DU VC, Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique, and National University VC Harun-or-Rashid allegedly caused a lack of coordination between the two institutions. The two VCs blamed each other for disruptions in academic activities.

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In October last year, college students started demanding the establishment of an independent university. On October 21, they blocked the Nilkhet intersection for several hours.

Abdur Rahman, a student of Dhaka College and one of the protesters,

"An independent university for these seven colleges is the only option forward.