The recruitment of 59 teachers for 21 departments at Islamic University in Kushtia has remained stalled as the University Grants Commission withheld financial clearance, citing procedural irregularities in the recruitment process at the university.
Despite issuing job advertisements between January 20 and February 18 for positions at different faculties, including theology, science, engineering and technology, biological sciences, arts, social sciences, law, and business administration, the university has failed to obtain prior UGC approval for 59 positions 鈥� a mandatory requirement for requirement at public universities in Bangladesh.
The commission reviewed the requests and granted clearance for only six positions for some department having acute shortages of teachers.
These departments include law and land management, communication and multimedia journalism, folklore studies, development studies, biomedical engineering, and tourism and hospitality management.
On August 3, the university issued a revised recruitment circular for the six approved posts. Candidates who had previously applied for the posts do not need to reapply, it said, adding that their submissions would be considered for the positions.
The delay in approving the remaining positions has worsened an already critical teacher shortage at the university.
Currently, 15 out of IU鈥檚 36 departments are heavily understaffed, with some departments relying on just two to four faculty members to teach students across all academic levels, university sources said.
They said that the shortage had put mounting pressure on the existing staff and caused disruptions in academic activities.
Professor Nazim Uddin, director of the institutional quality assurance cell at the IU, said, 鈥榃e need at least 1,080 teachers for 36 departments to meet the minimum level of standards. Currently, we have only 406 teachers. The teacher-to-student ratio is far below the acceptable level.鈥�
IU acting registrar professor Manjurul Haque admitted that the university had not sought prior UGC approval, calling it a 鈥榩rocedural mistake鈥�.
鈥榃e are now reapplying for clearance. Once approval is granted, recruitment for the remaining positions will restart immediately,鈥� he said.
Expressing disappointment, IU vice-chancellor professor Nakib Muhammad Nasrullah said, 鈥榃e anticipated UGC approval due to the urgent need for faculty members. Since it was not granted, the process was paused.鈥�
鈥楻ecruitment against the six approved posts is now moving forward,鈥� he added.
SM Sweet, a former coordinator of the IU unit of Students Against Discrimination, said, 鈥業t鈥檚 tragic that students are suffering due to a systemic failure in education.鈥�
The Students Against Discrimination spearheaded the mass uprising that ousted the authoritarian Awami League regime on August 5 past year.
UGC public university management director Zaminur Rahman said that approval had been granted for six teacher appointments.
鈥業 do not have updated information now on the remaining positions,鈥� he added.
