Rajshahi University students lock Arabic department in “shutdown” over delayed results
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Fourth-year Arabic students at Rajshahi University are staging a “complete shutdown” of their department after waiting four months for their exam results.
On Tuesday, students from the 2020–21 academic year locked classrooms, offices and the seminar library before staging a sit-in.
They also hung a mocking banner on the notice board, renaming the faculty the “Department of Ordinance, Former Arabic Department”.
Students said this was not their first demonstration. On Aug 25 they had padlocked the department with the same demand, reopening it only after assurances from teachers.
“Whenever we want to know about the publication of results, the departmental president asks us to talk to the president of the examination committee. Again, the president of the examination committee says that the results cannot be published due to the ordinance,” said Shariful Islam, a fourth-year student.
“We have been suffering from this problem for four months. We have job exams ahead. But the publication of results is being postponed repeatedly on excuses. Hence this movement.”
Another student, Mahdi Hasan, said: “We demand that the results be published on the website. Until then, the movement will continue.”
According to the department, the marks for the fourth-year course “BAR-4104: Science of Translation” were not submitted by Registrar and departmental professor Iftikharul Islam Masud.
Although another teacher of the same course, Prof Nizam Uddin, submitted his portion, the results remain withheld.
Attempts to contact Masud for comment were unsuccessful.
Examination Committee Chairman Belal Hossain said the results could not be published because the marks had not been received.
“He promised to submit the marks on Tuesday. The results will be published soon as soon as they are received,” he said.
Pro-Vice Chancellor for Education Farid Uddin said the university was aware of the issue.
“We have been busy in meetings since morning. It will be resolved by talking to the students,” he said.