Teachers of seven government colleges, formerly affiliated with Dhaka University and now in the process of being formed into Dhaka Central University, on Tuesday began a three-day work abstention in protest at a recent notice to begin admission and class activities at the proposed university.
The Secondary and Higher Education Division of the education ministry, in a press release on the day, said that the government had decided in principle to establish the Dhaka Central University by merging the tertiary level education of the seven colleges.
Dhaka College English department lecturer Adnan Hossain said that the teachers of all seven colleges were observing the three-day work abstention.
鈥楾he notification to finalise the admission process and to start classes is not legal. The notification may create various legal complications before any final decision is made on the ordinance of the proposed university,鈥� he said.
Since the teachers of the seven colleges are legally performing their duties as the teachers of government colleges through the Bangladesh Civil Service鈥檚 general education cadre, they do not have the option to participate in the process of confirming students and starting classes of the proposed university, according to the teachers of the colleges.
The teachers demanded immediate issuance of the ordinance of the proposed university, keeping the independent structure of the seven colleges intact.
They also demanded that the authorities find a satisfactory and permanent solution to the conflicts regarding the formation of the proposed university.
Adnan said that teachers of the seven colleges on Monday held an emergency meeting and took the decision to observe the three-day work abstention.
The protesting teachers also demanded the resignation of the proposed university鈥檚 interim administrator AKM Elias for issuing the notice.
On October 16, administrator Elias issued the notification for the concerned authorities of the seven colleges to take necessary actions to complete the admission activities for the 2024-25 academic year by November 20 and to start the classes from November 23.
Earlier, a group of students who are in the process of admission to the proposed university held a two-day hunger strike in October 29-30聽at the entrance of Dhaka College, demanding immediate completion of their admission and beginning of their classes.
Over 10,000 students were primarily admitted to the proposed university through admission tests in August.
However, the government is yet to finalise the ordinance of the proposed university.
On September 24, the government published a draft of the Dhaka Central University Ordinance, 2025 to establish the university with seven government colleges amid student protests.
The seven colleges鈥擠haka College, Begum Badrunnesa Government Women鈥檚 College, Eden Mohila College, Government Bangla College, Government Shaheed Suhrawardy College, Government Titumir College and Kabi Nazrul Government College鈥攚ere affiliated to Dhaka University in 2017 before which they were under National University.
A section of teachers and students of the colleges in different groups, however, opposed the structure of the proposed university since the publication of the draft ordinance, while another section of students staged demonstrations demanding immediate issuance of the ordinance.