Govt-appointed partisans occupying top positions and making vital decisions
Public universities are being run by non-elected and government-nominated vice-chancellors, without elections of students unions and with unelected representatives of registered graduates in the Senate.
No election to the vice-chancellor panel in the Chittagong University has been held for the last 20 years, in Rajshahi University for 12 years and Dhaka University for eight years.
Elections of registered graduates’ representatives to Senates of the Dhaka University, Rajshahi University, Chittagong University, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology and Khulna University have been overdue for years.
Jahangirnagar University has become an exception as it held its election to the vice-chancellor panel on July 20, after an interval of eight years.
The laws, under which the Dhaka, Jahangirnagar, Chittagong and Rajshahi universities are running, have identical provisions:
‘The vice-chancellor shall be appointed by the chancellor for a period of four years from a panel of three persons to be nominated by the Senate on such terms and conditions as may be determined by the chancellor, and shall be eligible for re-appointment for a further period of four years.’
Elections of the representatives of the registered graduates and teachers to the Senate of the Chittagong University have not been held in the last 26 and 11 years respectively.
In Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, election of representatives of registered graduates and teachers to the Senate has not been held in the last 21 years.
In Rajshahi University election of representatives of registered graduates has not been held in the last 18 years and of teachers’ representatives for the last seven years.
In Khulna University the last election to the Senate was held seven years ago.
In Jahangirnagar University the election of the representatives of registered graduates have not been held in the last 14 years, and the last election of teachers’ representatives was held in 2010.
In Dhaka University, the last election of representatives of registered graduates and teachers was held in 2009.
Election to the VC panel was never ever held in other public universities, including the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology and Khulna University, as the law empowers the chancellor to appoint a vice-chancellor of his choice.
Elections to the students’ unions of different universities have not been held in about two decades, which has virtually prevented students from working effectively to ensure the welfare of their fellow-students and playing their due role in running these universities.
No initiatives have been taken by the selected vice-chancellors of universities for holding elections to the vice-chancellor panel, while election to the students’ unions of the mentioned universities has remained elusive although students have been rallying for it.
New Age’s Chittagong University correspondent reports that election to the vice-chancellor panel could not be held for as many as 24 years. Instead of election, persons chosen by the government got the appointments during this long period.
The university has had eight vice-chancellors selected by the successive governments in the last 20 years. The incumbent VC, Anwarul Azim Arif, was appointed on 15 June, 2011.
University sources told New Age that only two vice-chancellors were elected by the Senate after the establishment of the university.
The Senate is not active in the university as its main role is to elect a VC, according to the Ordinance. The last election of representatives of registered graduates to the Senate was held in 1986, and the last election of teachers’ representatives was held in 2001.
The last election of the Chittagong University Central Students’ Union was held in 1990. Consequently, the five seats of representatives of the students’ union in the Senate have remained empty for about two decades.
The administrative officials of the university said the election of representatives of teachers and register graduates should take place after every three years.
The CU’s vice-chancellor, Anwarul Azim Arif, told New Age that whenever initiatives have been taken for holding election of registered graduates’ representatives, cases have been filed against the university by many people.
New Age’s Rajshahi University correspondent reported that in Rajshahi University election to the vice-chancellor panel has not been held for the last 12 years.
The last election of representatives of registered graduates was held in 1994 and of teachers’ representatives in 2005.
The last election to the Rajshahi University Central Students’ Union was held in 1989.
Rajshahi University’s vice-chancellor, Abdus Sobhan, was not available for comment.
In Dhaka University election to the vice-chancellor panel has not been held for eight years, the last such election being held in 2004.
Last May the High Court had asked the vice-chancellor of Dhaka University to explain why he would not be directed to call a Senate session to discuss the nomination of a three-member panel to appoint the vice-chancellor of the university.
Thirty Senate members, including DU Teachers’ Association general secretary Wahiduzzaman Chan, on 25 April sent a letter to the vice-chancellor, Professor AAMS Arefin Siddique, asking him to select a panel for choosing the vice-chancellor.
The last election of representatives of registered graduates to the Senate was held in June 2009, and of teachers’ representatives in the same month. Their tenure expired last June.
The last election to the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union was held in 1990.
AAMS Arefin Siddique refrained from making any comment, merely saying that election to the VC panel and DUCSU were sub judice.
New Age’s Jahangirnagar University correspondent said that the university held its last election to the vice-chancellor panel on July 20, after eight years, but it aroused protest by a section the teachers who said that elections to the Syndicate, Senate and students’ union should have preceded this election according to the accepted convention. The last election of registered graduates’ representatives was held in 1998.
The JU’s vice-chancellor, Anwar Hossain, said that election to the VC panel was held last month and all other elections would be held very soon.
Khulna University’s pro-vice-chancellor Mohammad Foyek Uzzaman, BUET’s registrar Abu Siddique and Shahjalal University of Science and Technology’s registrar Ishfaqul Hussain said that the laws guiding the universities have no provision for holding election to the VC panel.
Foyek Uzzaman said that in Khulna University the last election to the Senate was held in 2004, and Ishfaqul Hussain said that in Shahjalal University of Science and Technology election of representatives of registered graduate and teachers have not been held since 1991.
Teachers of various universities said that in the absence of such elections, partisan people were put into the top positions of the universities, and as a result in most cases highly qualified, experienced, internationally well-known academics with proven track- records are left out in the cold when top administrators are chosen for public universities
The University Grants Commission’s chairman, AK Azad Chowdhury, said that the UGC has nothing to do with elections of the universities according to its rules and regulations. ‘But personally I believe there should be elections,’ he said.
Courtesy of New Age
