Prof AKM Elius set to be administrator of seven colleges

Prof AKM Elius, who was on Sunday appointed as the principal of Dhaka College on a contractual basis, is set to be the first administrator of the seven public colleges in Dhaka, said sources at the University Grants Commission (UGC). 

The Ministry of Public Administration issued a notification on Sunday, appointing him as the principal of Dhaka College for two years.

Prof AKM Elius, who retired also as the principal of Dhaka College, will head the interim management of the seven colleges.

The interim management would function until the establishment of a common university for the students of the seven colleges. It will be supervised by the UGC, and have its headquarters at Dhaka College.

Work on finalising the interim framework was going on for some time, but the role of administrator remained undecided.

The principal from any one of the seven colleges was expected to become the administrator.

Delays in selecting an administrator prompted students to threaten a resumption of street movements from today. 

On Saturday, in a press conference, the students gave the government until Sunday to issue a notification on the full interim management formulation, five working days to publish the framework and monogram of the new university, and thirty days to approve relevant legal provisions.

The seven colleges are Dhaka College, Eden Mohila College, Government Shaheed Suhrawardy College, Kabi Nazrul Government College, Government Bangla College and Government Titumir College.

Students from these colleges have been suffering from academic session delays and other problems for a long time.

In February 2017, the crisis took a major turn when the then Awami League government decided to separate the colleges from the National University and subsume these under Dhaka University. 

The attempt to ease session jams proved counter-productive as many alleged that the students' sufferings only grew further.

Many stakeholders alleged the move was ill-planned, arbitrary and undemocratic as the government did not hold prior discussions with others.

Since August last year, with the fall of the Awami League dictatorship, students from the seven colleges repeatedly blocked major roads in the capital, demanding the establishment of a dedicated university for the seven colleges. They sought to cut all ties with Dhaka University.

Initially, the government accepted the demands, but later, faced numerous bureaucratic and policy hurdles in realising its pledge, pushing the students to threaten mass movements time and again.