Bangladesh News

Twenty more cases of forged admission in economics department of Dhaka University (DU) have been detected as a drive to detect fake students at the university is now going on, sources in the department said.
The DU authorities launched the drive recently following a probe committee report on forgery in the admission of students of 2004-2005 academic session.

The committee headed by Pro Vice Chancellor Prof AFM Yusuf Haider was formed in the wake of allegations of inconsistencies in admission papers of 11 students of public administration department. It submitted an interim report to the syndicate.

The report said there are some 30 fake students in public administration, economics and international relations departments in 2004-2005 session.

Suspecting that there might be more fake students in other departments and institutes of the DU, the committee recommended that all department chairmen and institute directors be advised to check if their students were genuine ones. The syndicate approved the recommendations.

The DU authorities have already suspended three officials of the three departments concerned.

Meanwhile, apprehension is growing about the total number of fake students at the university.

“Thirty fake students in only three departments and in only one session! It is amazing. And who knows what would be the number of such students in the 52 departments and nine institutes of the university. I am afraid it could be several hundred or even more than a thousand,” said the chairman of one of the three departments.

The probe committee said an organised and powerful nexus comprising university officials at different levels, a section of teachers, student leaders and others outside the university is involved in the mischief.

Seeking anonymity, the chairman said 200-300 fake students might get admitted in the DU each session, and this might involve payment of crores of taka.

A probe committee source said, ” If these fake students are not caught, they would complete their studies and get genuine certificates. But none would know about their acts of forgery.” These students either did not take part in the university’s admission test or they were not on the merit list for admission. So, they resorted to forgery, he added.

A strong network involved in admission forgery is active at the offices of deans of faculties, departments, institutes, administrative building and residential halls. They are trusted by all concerned. Their job is to find loopholes in the admission process and carry out their mischief in cunning ways escaping the authorities’ notice, said a source linked to the network.

Admission forgery at the DU has been continuing since the Awami League (AL) rule. A central leader of AL’s student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League led the racket.

During the rule of BNP-Jamaat coalition, a central leader of BNP’s student front Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, led the nexus.

Negligence of chairmen and directors of departments and institutes to perform their duties properly greatly contributed to admission of fake students. So, they cannot avoid responsibility for this, sources pointed out.

” Teachers may or may not be involved in the illegal process. And it should be looked into if they were aware of it,” one source noted.

An official of public administration department has gone on leave hearing that the probe committee is going to ask them about admission forgery.

Prof Farid Uddin Ahmed, chairman of economics department, said they had checked admission papers but they did not find any inconsistencies or forged signatures of students. So, they thought there were no fake students. But now fake students are being found, he wondered.

The probe committee found that most fake students rushed for certain departments or institutes. These include the Institute of Education and Research (IER) and social welfare, sociology, law and anthropology department.

Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique, former president of DU Teachers’ Association, said, a powerful racket operates in the ad mission process. Whoever is involved in the racket should be exposed. If necessary, intelligence agencies should be entrusted with doing this. And credibility of the university’s admission process must be upheld.