DHAKA, Oct 2, 2024 (BSS) – Academics and intellectuals in  a discussion today underscored the need for adequate finance, actual autonomy and fostering justice-based democracy in the universities to make those  capable to achieve its actual goal .

For overall development of universities, the speakers focused on some major issues including ensuring true autonomy, adequate finance from the state, and quality recruitment of teachers and revising the entrance test and its methods.

“The universities should run by its teachers with utmost academic freedom without external intervention and democratic practice in the campus based on fairness and justice,” said noted educationist and intellectual Professor Dr Salimullah Khan

The remarks came from a discussion on ‘Defining university’s crisis and finding ways for solution’, organized by student-run tri-monthly literature magazine Siren at university’s RC Majumder auditorium on Dhaka University (DU) campus.

Dr Salimullah Khan, also a member of Democratic Rights Committee, said: “Democracy has become the last shelter of fascism. You have to distinguish between the democracies— the actual democracy based on fairness and justice, and the other one based on unfairness which became the last shelter for the fascism.”

In terms of practicing democracy, the professor compared the Dhaka University Act 1973 with the country’s 1972’s constitution and said the same deception has been made in formulating both the ordinance and the constitution.

The idea of formulating the university ordinance came from Ayub Khan’s university ordinance, 1961 to control the finance given to the university from the state, he added.

Expressing disappointment over university students’ unwillingness to know history, he said, “If you want to make the university better, you must know its actual history in details as well as the possibilities in the coming days.”

Terming the existing admission test procedure as extremely discriminatory for its complete dependence on some merit-based parameters, the professor suggested following the aptitude test-focused admission process of the American universities.

Bangla Academy Director General Dr Mohammad Azam said, “No visible changes have been brought to the country’s universities as per necessity. Moreover; the universities failed to become viable to accept the desired changes.”
Azam emphasised on introducing a fully funded PhD programme at DU and hiring faculty members from foreign universities on contractual basis to enlighten the students.

While addressing, Prof Samina Luthfa of DU sociology department stressed on reducing the absolute power of Vice Chancellor in the university as well as scraping the VC’s special power of closing the university anytime or taking any decision.

Samina also said the power and dignity of university’s academic council should be increased significantly above other decision making bodies  to ensure its autonomy in actual way.

In the discussion, students presented a concept paper defining the crisis of DU and placed a 14-point proposal to address the crisis.