The Rajshahi University authorities could not arrange any convocation in the past twelve years, with the last convocation held in 1998.
Only seven convocations were held so far since the inception of the university in 1953, according to university sources.
After the independence war, the university arranged a special convocation on April 23 in 1973.
Teachers and students of the university said the convocation could not be organised because of political instability on the campus.
Malay Bhoumik, music and dramatics department chairman of the university, told New Age, ‘It is very unbecoming of a university not to hold any convocation.’
‘The education life of a student formally concludes after getting certificate at the convocation programme. But Rajshahi University has completely failed to arrange that programme in the past one decade,’ he added.
Dulal Chandra Biswas, associate professor of mass communication and journalism department and also director general of Bangladesh Press Institute, said, ‘Question is raised about the quality of a university which cannot organise convocation,’ he added.
Professor Azizul Islam, president of Rajshahi University Teachers Association, told New Age that as the university campus remains unstable for political violence, the authorities could not arrange convocation regularly.
‘But we are trying to arrange a conviction and we had gone to Dhaka to meet the president in this regard,’ he added.
The students alleged that the university was in the grip of session jam and one of the big reasons behind the session jam was not holding convocation on a regular basis.
They said if the convocation could be arranged regularly, the lazy departments would be under pressure to address the session jam.
Jubaer Hossain, a student who recently completed his master’s from the sociology department of Rajshahi University, told New Age, ‘I had a dream to receive the certificate from the president but my dream did not come true.’
When contacted, Rajshahi University vice-chancellor Professor M Abdus Sobhan told New Age that university was going to arrange a convocation at the beginning of the next year.
He said, ‘We have taken a decision to arrange convocation in February of the coming year.’
‘We are trying to invite Noam Chomsky or Nobel laureate Amartya Sen as the convocation speaker. We will fix the final date after taking their consent,’ he added.
