Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) has been declared closed for an indefinite period following the attack on its academic building. The attack followed a movement by various students groups to delay an exam. Unrest is also continuing in two more renowned public universities. At Shahjalal University in Sylhet, a section of teachers is on strike demanding the removal of the VC. On the other hand, an agitation demanding the employment of former Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) as faculty and staff of Islamic University has crippled its activities.
But it is expected BUET would be reopened soon to start its academic activities. It is considered as a centre of excellence and only the best of the students get the chance to study here. But disruption of education in this university is really unexpected. Most public universities face disruptions in the academic calendar due to unscheduled closure resulting from agitations, some of which often lead to violence with use of firearms. As a consequence, academic activities are seriously disrupted, leading to session jams and other problems.
 Student politics in its current form has become redundant. The student political bodies in public universities in Bangladesh do not serve the interests of the students at all. Today, student politics poses a major obstacle to actual changes that students could cause, in order to contribute positively to society as well as the education scene. Student politics, with its existing apparatus, uses the students by exploiting their vulnerabilities, and makes them take part in political activities.
Often students get involved in politics against their will. Every time there is a political crisis, violence between rival student organisations leads to university closure. These occur with such frequency in public universities that four-year degrees can take six to seven years to complete. Local newspapers have reported that 17 students killed in the last 25 years at Chittagong University alone after clashes between rival student organisations. The figures would be much higher if all universities are taken into consideration.
Though Representation of the People’s Order (RPO), the founding document that in 1972 set up the rules of the electoral game in Bangladesh, forbids any major political party to have affiliations with students, teachers, professionals and unions, nevertheless each major political party has survived through major anti-democratic turns because of their grass-roots and ground-swelling affiliations with student groups, or rather, student parties. University education in Bangladesh is being hijacked to serve gross political interests. This cannot continue if we want Bangladesh to grow as a strong, and stable, a mature democracy. We now need a national political will that would purge the life of students from the current vicious trend in student politics.