DOT Desk: Thirty-one private universities of the country have failed to move to their own campuses even after extension deadlines set by the University Grants Commission (UGC) several times, reports The Daily Sun.
The authorities of the private institutions are reluctant to go by the UGC directive as they continue to run their activities at small rented houses only to maximise profit in the name of providing higher education, sources said.
According to UGC, 91 private universities are now running their academic activities in the country.
After the enactment of the Private University Act-2010, UGC set five deadlines — one after another — for 51 out of 91 private universities for shifting all academic activities to their permanent campuses.
But only 20 universities moved to their permanent campuses during the period from 2010 to 2018 following the order.
The universities are still sharing their rented academic buildings with various business institutions, defying the government’s rules. Those institutions lack proper atmosphere for education.
Commercial institutions like parlour, restaurant, super shop, diagnostic centre, shoe showroom and tea-stall have been operating their business for long in the same building that houses private universities.
As per government rules, a private university should be housed on a permanent campus within seven years of its operation.
Education ministry sources said a total of 51 universities were established before the passing of private university act in 2010. Soon after the passing of the law, the government issued red alert asking the 51 universities to shift to their permanent campus by September 2011.
But most of the universities failed to shift their campus within the government fixed deadline.
Later, the second deadline given the government expired in 2012 while the third deadline in 2013, the fourth deadline in June 2015 and the fifth deadline in 2017. During the period, 20 universities moved to their own campuses.
Some of the remaining universities have started setting up their own campuses while some have bought lands to set up own campus, sources said.
Officials said speaking at many programmes, former education minister Nurul Islam Nahid had also warned the universities of taking legal action for failing to move to their own campuses.
But the warning and deadlines have gone unheeded by the 31 private universities as they consider them more powerful than the government, a ministry official said.
Records show that Dhaka International University got approval in 2000. But, the DIU is operating another campus on Green Road. They failed to shift all activities to their own campus located in Satarkul in the last 18 years.
Daffodil International University was established in 2002. The permanent campus of the university is located in Birulia but they are still running makeshift campus at Sobhanbag and Uttara in the capital.
The people’s University of Bangladesh started its journey in 1996 at Asad Avenue in Mohammadpur area of the city but the university failed to go to its permanent campus in the last 22 years.
University of Development Alternative was established in 2001 but the university is yet to shift to permanent campus. They are running academic activities at rented houses in Dhanmondi in the capital.
A UGC official said the commission is not giving approval of any new programme to the universities, which failed to shift to their permanent campus within the deadlines.
UGC chairman Prof Abdul Mannan said, “We are asking the universities to move to their permanent campuses and they will have to do it for their own interest.”
“We will take the next course of action against the private universities after a meeting with the education minister,” he said