A section of students of Begum Badrunnesa Government Girls’ College on Thursday voiced objections against the structure of proposed Dhaka Central University to be formed with seven government colleges, while a group of students of Government Titumir College demanded a separate university.
The government has decided to form Dhaka Central University following widespread student protests.
Five other colleges under the proposed university are Dhaka College, Eden Mahila College, Government Bangla College, Government Shaheed Suhrawardy College and Kabi Nazrul Government College.
Higher secondary-level students of Badrunnesa College on Thursday alleged that the proposed university would affect their academic lives and shrink opportunities for female students while honours and master’s students of Titumir College said that they would not be a part of the proposed university as they had earlier demanded a separate one for Titumir College.
The students of Titumir College issued a three-day ultimatum to the government to remove its name from the proposed university and announce a separate one for it, otherwise they would go for street protests again.
They made the remarks at a press conference held at the Titumir College campus in the capital Dhaka on Thursday.
At a separate press conference at the Badrunnesa College campus in the capital, student of the college Rabeya Boshri Miti read out a written statement and said that students of Badrunnesa College and Eden Mahila College were in fear of shrinking educational opportunities for women due to the structure of the proposed university.
‘Eden and Badrunnesa colleges have long been known as the centres of women’s education in Bangladesh. We see the possibility of losing safe and affordable education opportunities and environment for women, which we will never accept,’ said Rabeya.
On Wednesday, the Secondary and Higher Education Division under the education ministry published the draft of the Dhaka Central University Ordinance, 2025 in its web site, seeking opinions from the stakeholders within seven days.
Referring to the draft ordinance, Rabeya said that academic activities for the college were scheduled for the morning and those of the university from 1:00pm to 7:00pm, which would create a schedule conflict for sharing the same infrastructure.
Rejecting the draft ordinance, Titumir College student Mehedi Hasan Mal placed a six-point demand.
He said, ‘No activities under this university [Dhaka Central University] will be allowed to be conducted on this campus.’
On Wednesday, a group of higher secondary-level students and a section of teachers of seven colleges opposed the structure of Dhaka Central University.
The seven government colleges were affiliated with Dhaka University in 2017. Before that, they were under National University.
Following a large-scale movement, including railway and road blockade, academic activities boycott and fast unto death by students of the seven colleges, over deprivation of different facilities, the Dhaka University authorities on January 27 decided to cancel their affiliation with these colleges.
On August 3, the admission procedure in the undergraduate programmes under the university for the 2025-24 academic year started.Â
Over 2,000 teachers and 1.67 lakh students are under these colleges.