Jahangirnagar University's exam irregularities raise concerns among students

Jahangirnagar University’s corridors are now echoing with discontent as a series of violations of examination rules have come to light, leaving students and faculty in dismay.

Students are alleging that teachers are dedicating more time to personal pursuits and university politics rather than focusing on their classrooms. This has led to a pattern of delayed result publication and disrupted academic routines, contrary to the university's central examination regulations.

According to the Office of the Controller of University Examinations, several departments of the university, including Bangabandhu Comparative Literature and Culture, Urban and Regional Planning, Law and Justice, Bangla, and Pharmacy, have been affected by these issues.

Notably, the Bangabandhu Institute of Comparative Literature and Culture is currently conducting final exams for fouth-year students of the academic year 2017-18 (batch 47) without having published the results for the previous year. This delay has been attributed to a shortage of teaching staff within the institute.

The Department of Law and Justice has also faced criticism for conducting post-graduation exams for both the 2016–17 (batch 46) and 2017–18 (batch 47) academic years simultaneously, starting on 25 July. This move was prompted by the fact that these batches had previously undergone graduation exams together.

Unfortunately, this decision resulted in a significant number of students failing—9 from batch 46 and 8 from batch 47. Instead of availing the usual option of a quality improvement examination, these students were required to undertake a special examination, costing Tk 14,000, which posed a financial challenge for many.

Associate professor Tapas Kumar Das, the Dean of the Faculty of Law and Justice, defended the simultaneous examinations, citing student requests and the urgency to expedite their education.

Although the university's examination rules do not explicitly permit such an arrangement, he asserted that the necessary permissions were obtained from the vice-chancellor (education) to proceed accordingly.

In response to the criticism surrounding the special examination costs, he said that students didn’t pay any extra fees. Although the students of the department said they had to bear the expenses themselves.

Delays in releasing results have plagued the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, which led to the completion of post-graduation exams for the 2016–17 academic year before the results for the previous year were released.

Professor Anisha Noori Kankan, the department chairman, attributed the holdup to the time-consuming process of evaluating theses at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

On the contrary, the Department of Journalism and Media Studies, with an equal number of teaching staff, has managed to publish student results promptly without any regulatory violations.

The university's Examination Rules of 2003, clause 20(iii), stipulates that teachers should be allocated one day for every five exam copies for evaluation purposes. Additionally, clause 26(iii) mandates that exam results be published within 75 days of the conclusion of written examinations. The rules also dictate that theses must be submitted within three months of theory exam completion.

Another glaring case of delay was witnessed in the Bengali department, which commenced the final exams for the 2017-18 academic year while the results for the previous year, 2016-17, remained undisclosed. Similarly, the Pharmacy department carried out fourth-year exams without releasing the third-year final exam results from the academic year 2016–17, causing a nearly two-year delay in result publication.

Professor Mostafa Feroze, vice chancellor (education), said that he had engaged with the respective faculty deans to assess the status of results and streamline the academic session.

He said that conducting exams for two academic years simultaneously was not feasible. He asserted that the existing guidelines, which grant one day for every five exam copies, provide ample time to publish results within the prescribed 75-day window.

Regarding the Bangabandhu Institute of Comparative Literature, he expressed his disapproval of disregarding regulations and sought cooperation from both students and teachers to restore order to the university's academic calendar.