Getting rid of NU's session jam

Currently, around three million students are studying in the National University (NU) affiliated colleges. The number is 66 per cent of all the students pursuing higher education in Bangladesh. Unfortunately, it is a university only on paper, but it functions basically as an examination board. The National University came into being to create opportunity of higher education for students all over the country. Unfortunately, because of session jam the goal has not been achieved. There are also some other problems. However, one of the major problems of this university is session jam. In NU-affiliated colleges, students need seven to eight years to complete a four-year graduation course. Thus, valuable time of their life is lost and many of them cannot apply for many government jobs as the age limit for government jobs is 30 years.
The NU carried out a special crush programme from session 2013-14 to reduce its session jam and was successful to do that to some extent. However, session jam has returned to this university again mainly due to long closure of colleges due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The NU students of 2017-18 session do not yet know when their fourth-year final examination would take place while many of their public university counterparts have already completed their graduation. It cannot go on like this. The NU authorities must maintain a proper timing of session, examination, publication of results and completion of under-graduation programmes on time. The government should monitor the activities of the NU with care so that people do not lose their faith in this institution of higher education.

Ahosun Habib Lingkon,
Student of Department of Economics,
Govt. Brajalal College, Khulna,
[email protected]