Staff Reporter :
Any student who will obtain certificate from America Bangladesh University will be invalid and illegal as the institution does not have any legal base on account of violating the Private University Act, 2010.
University Grants Commission (UGC), the apex regulatory body of the universities, suggested the students not to take admission into the university in order to avoid the legality of the certificates.
UGC has given this recommendation following a thorough investigation about the university and submitted a report to the Ministry of Education on Thursday.
The Commission in its recommendations said that a negative image has been created about the
country’s higher education around the world for illegal activities of America Bangladesh University for a long time.
Quoting the provision 12(1) of the Private University Act, 2010, UGC Member Professor Dr Biswajit Chanda said, “The University has failed to fulfill the conditions of the provision 9 of the Act within the timeframe. So it has no legal basis for running any activity.”
“The university did not apply for permanent certificate within the time period of temporary permission and has failed to obtain permanent certificate with the given time,” he added.
“Considering people’s interest, the students have been advised not to take admission thereinto,” he added.
The UGC Member also mentioned that the America Bangladesh University did not have any Vice-Chancellor, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Treasurer appointed by the President after 2006. It means the university does not have any legal authority at present. In addition, the academic programmes have lost its validity as all curricula of the university have expired.
On the other hand, according to the provision 17 and 19 of the Private University Act, 2010, the university does not have any legal syndicate and academic council. As a result, the university does not have any legality for academic, administrative, financial, admission, examination and results, as well as academic certificate, UGC said.
America Bangladesh University obtained the permission through Ministry of Education to set the institution on 19 August 2002. The government in 2006 announced the university closed for failing to fulfill the conditions of temporary permission and ensure quality education.
Against the government’s order, the university authority filed a writ petition with the High Court and obtained stay order to carry out its activities. Currently, the Board of Trustees has been split into three sides and they are running its activities illegally, UGC said.
According to the probe committee, a Board of Trustees (BoT) is never synonymous to a university. A BoT is only one authority out of the other nine as per the provision 14(1) of the Private University Act, 2010.
But these three groups are running academic activities, considering themselves synonymous to a university. Such activities have created negative image about the country’s higher education worldwide.
