UGC Forms Committee to Resolve CUET Crisis — but It Has No One from CUET

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has formed a six-member advisory committee to resolve the ongoing deadlock at the Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET). But no teacher or representative of CUET itself has been included in the committee formed to solve the university's crisis, raising questions.

The committee was formed on Monday afternoon (19 October), following a directive from the education ministry, through an order signed by Mohammad Jaminur Rahman, director of public university management.

UGC member Professor Abdullah-Al-Mamun has been made convener of the committee, while UGC additional director Dr Md Mohibul Ahsan will serve as member secretary.

The other members are the vice-chancellors of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), the University of Chittagong and the Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (CVASU), along with Md Mahbubul Haque Patwary, additional secretary (university) of the Secondary and Higher Education Division of the education ministry.

The crisis began on 21 September, when CUET vice-chancellor Professor Abu Sadat Muhammad Sayem was removed and Professor Sheikh Shariful Alam of the Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (KUET) was appointed as the new vice-chancellor.

Protesting that decision, students have been observing a complete shutdown programme since 22 September. Teachers, officers and employees have also been running work abstention and non-cooperation programmes with the same demand.

Because of the movement, which has continued for nearly a month, most academic activities of the university, including classes and examinations, have remained suspended, deepening uncertainty over students' academic lives.

Amid this situation, the vice-chancellor convened an online syndicate meeting of the university last Friday, and the UGC formed the advisory committee based on the decisions of that syndicate meeting.

However, many are questioning the absence of any CUET representative in a committee formed to resolve the university's crisis, doubting how effective a solution can be without those at the centre of the dispute.

Samiun Basir, joint secretary of the CUET Teachers' Association, said: 'The committee formed to resolve CUET's problems has no one from CUET in it. An even bigger question is how valid the syndicate meeting is on whose decision this committee was formed — because there was no one from CUET in that syndicate meeting either.'

It now remains to be seen what steps the government and the university administration take after the advisory committee submits its recommendations, and when academic activities at CUET, stalled for nearly a month, return to normal.