University of Dhaka
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| Motto | "শিক্ষাই আলো" ("Knowledge is Enlightenment") |
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| Established | 1921 |
| Type | Public |
| Chancellor | Dr Md Iajuddin Ahmed |
| Vice-Chancellor | Dr Syed Md Abul Faiz |
| Faculty | 1,345 |
| Students | 30,000 |
| Location | Dhaka, Bangladesh |
| Campus | Urban, 600 acres (2.43 km²) |
| Website | www.univdhaka.edu |
The University of Dhaka (commonly referred to as Dhaka University or just DU) (Bangla: ঢাকা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় Đhaka Bishshobiddalôe) is the oldest university in Bangladesh. Established in 1921 under the Dacca University Act 1920 of the Indian Legislative Council, it is modelled after British universities. It is a multi-disciplinary university and is among the top universities in the region. With more than 30,000 students and upwards of 1,300 teachers, the University of Dhaka is the largest public university in Bangladesh. It is the only university in Bangladesh to have been listed in AsiaWeek's listing of top 100 Universities in Asia (64th). [1].
Initially, the university worked hard to build up an outstanding record of academic achievement, earning for itself the reputation of being the 'Oxford of the East'. The university contributed to the emergence of a generation of leaders who distinguished themselves in different occupations in East Bengal. Until the Partition of Bengal in 1947, it maintained its unique character of being one of the few residential institutions of higher learning in Asia. In 1947, it assumed academic authority over all educational institutions above the secondary level falling within East Bengal. In the process, it became a teaching-cum-affiliating institution. This transformation, coupled with its unprecedented growth in the years that followed, put strains beyond reckoning on its human as well as material resources.
The university demonstrated an inherent strength in its activities during its eventful and often critical existence of over 80 years. Today, it provides about 70% of the trained human resources of Bangladesh engaged in education, science and technology, administration, diplomacy, mass communication, politics, trade and commerce, and industrial enterprises in all sectors. Students and teachers of this university have played a major role in shaping the history of Bangladesh.
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[edit] History
Under the Dacca University Act 1920 if the Indian Legislative Council, the University of Dhaka was established in 1921. Academic activities started on July 1, 1921 with 3 faculties, 12 teaching departments, 60 teachers, 847 students and 3 residential halls.
[edit] Founding and the British era
The founding of the University of Dhaka did not happen without convolutions. A combination of a whole set of political, social and economic compulsions persuaded the government of India to establish it 'as a splendid imperial compensation' to Muslims for the annulment of the partition of Bengal. The first vice-chancellor of the university, Dr. PJ Hartog, a former academic registrar of the University of London for 17 years and a member of the University of Calcutta Commission, described this phenomenon as the 'political origin' of the institution.
The Partition of Bengal in 1905 provided the Muslim majority community of East Bengal and Assam with a sphere of influence of their own and raised new hopes for the development of the region and advancement of its people. But its annulment, barely six years later due to stiff opposition from the powerful Hindu leadership, was viewed by Muslims as 'a grievous wrong'. Muslims were late to realise that their educational backwardness was a root cause of their decline in other fields of life. Hindus had a clear lead of at least 50 years in adopting the system of education introduced by the British, which freed the Indian mind from the 'thraldom of old-world ideas' and initiated a renaissance in Indian life. This put Hindus in advantageous positions in every sphere of influence in Bengal. At least four high-level commissions – the Hunter Commission of 1882, the Nathan Commission of 1912, the Hornell Committee of 1913, and the Calcutta University Commission of 1917 - confirmed this observation.
Viceroy Lord Hardinge was quick to perceive the dissatisfaction of Muslims at the government's decision for annulment and decided to pay an official visit to Dhaka to assuage the aggrieved community. A deputation of high ranking Muslim leaders, including Sir Nawab Khwaja Salimullah, Nawab Syed Nawab Ali Choudhury and AK Fazlul Huq, met him on January 31, 1912 and expressed their fears that the annulment would retard the educational progress of their community. As compensation for the annulment of the Partition, as well as protest against the general antipathy of Calcutta University towards Muslims, the deputation made a vigorous demand for a university at Dhaka. In response, Lord Hardinge acknowledged that education was the true salvation of Muslims and that the government would recommend to the Secretary of State the constitution of such a university. This was confirmed in an official communiqué on February 2, 1912. Lord Hardinge admitted that since 1906 the provinces of East Bengal and Assam had made great strides forward. That year there were 1,698 collegiate students in East Bengal and Assam, and the expenditure on collegiate education was Rs 154,358. In 1912, with the same number of institutions, the corresponding figures were 2,560 students and Rs 383,619. Educational classes and schemes were formed with reference to local conditions. From 1905 to 1910-11, the number of pupils in public institutions rose from 699,051 to 936,653 and the expenditure from provincial revenues rose from Rs 1,106,510 to Rs 2,205,339 while the local expenditure, direct and indirect, rose from Rs 4,781,833 to Rs 7,305,260.
Many Hindu leaders were not happy with the government's intention to set up a university at Dhaka. On February 16, 1912, a delegation headed by advocate Dr Rash Bihari Ghosh, met the viceroy and expressed the apprehension that the establishment of a separate university at Dhaka would promote 'an internal partition of Bengal'. They also contended, as was recorded in the Calcutta University Commission report later, that "Muslims of Eastern Bengal were in large majority cultivators and they would benefit in no way by the foundation of a university". Lord Hardinge assured the delegation that no proposals, which could lead to the internal partition or division of Bengal would meet the support of the government. He also expressed that the new university would be open to all and it would be a teaching and a residential university. At one stage, Lord Hardinge told Sir Asutosh Mukherjee, vice-chancellor of Calcutta University, that he was determined to establish a university at Dhaka in spite of all their opposition.
The opposition by Hindu intelligentsia was not the only hurdle in implementation of the plan for the new university. Many complex legal and material issues were to be examined. After obtaining the approval of the Secretary of State, in a letter on April 4, 1912, the government of India invited the government of Bengal to submit a complete scheme for the university, along with a financial estimate. Accordingly, in a resolution of May 27, 1912, the government of Bengal appointed a committee of 13 members headed by Mr Robert Nathan, a barrister from London, to draw up a scheme for Dhaka University. The resolution emphasised that 'the university should be a teaching and residential one and not of the federal type' and that 'it should bind together the colleges of the city and should not include any college which is beyond the limits of the town'. The committee acted with speed and with the thoroughness and wisdom of 25 special sub-committees, it submitted its report in autumn of the same year. The report contained plans of the proposed buildings and estimates of capital expenditure amounting to Rs 5.3 million (later raised to Rs 6.7 million by the Public Works and Development agency) and of recurring expenditure amounting to Rs 1.2 million. The report went into considerable details about the mission of the university and its courses of study. The committee recommended that the university should be a state institution with unitary teaching and residential form on the model of modern UK universities such as Manchester, Leeds, and Liverpool, and that it should encompass seven colleges including Dacca College and Jagannath College. The entire teaching in science, law, medicine, and engineering at postgraduate level was to be conducted by the university itself. In fact, the Dhaka University model was highly appraised and was later, followed in establishing new universities at Allahabad, Benaras, Hyderabad, Aligarh, Lucknow and Annamalai.
The Nathan Committee suggested for the university a spectacular site of about 243 acres forming part of the new civil station created at Ramna for the government of Eastern Bengal and Assam. The site housed Curzon Hall, Dacca College, the new government house, the secretariat, the government press, a number of houses for officers, and other minor buildings. In due course, all this land with their buildings and other properties was made over to the university in a permanent lease on a nominal rent of Rs 1,000 a year. After the committee report was published in 1913, public opinion was invited before the university scheme was given its final shape. The Secretary of State approved it in December 1913. Then the First World War intervened creating acute financial stringency for the government. Even a skeletal scheme estimated to cost only Rs 1,125,000 could not be taken up. This caused misgivings in the minds of Muslim leaders. When Nawab Syed Nawab Ali Choudhury raised the issue in the Indian Legislative Council on March 7, 1917, Shankaran Nair, the government spokesman, reaffirmed the government pledge to establish the university at Dhaka, but added that consideration of a bill already drafted would now have to wait for a report from the Calcutta University Commission, to which the Dhaka university scheme had been referred for advice regarding its constitution and management.
The decision to appoint a commission to enquire into the problems and needs of Calcutta University was announced by its chancellor Lord Chelmsford at convocation on January 6, 1917. Accordingly a commission was formed with Dr. ME Sadler as its chairman. The commission justified the setting up of a university at Dhaka, the second largest town of the Presidency. Report of the Sadler Commission also indicated that Dhaka was already in the centre of a great student population as Dhaka division and Tippera district supplied 7,097 out of a total number of 27,290 students in the University of Calcutta. The Commission agreed with most parts of the Nathan Committee scheme and urged that the University of Dhaka should be established without further delay.
The commission made 13 recommendations, which were adopted, with few exceptions, in the Dacca University Act 1920. The Governor General of India appointed Dr. PJ Hartog as the first vice-chancellor for a term of 5 years beginning December 1, 1920. He assumed office on December 10, 1920. The new university immediately faced serious problems in regard to funds for which it was entirely dependent upon inelastic public revenues from the Bengal government, which would not give a single rupee without authorisation from the legislative council. The next difficulty, as reported by the chancellor to the first court meeting, had been in satisfying the expectations of the Mohammedan community. In spite of the best endeavours the university administration was able to secure only a small number of Muslims for the teaching staff. Also, the number of Muslim students, who represented barely 9% of university students in Bengal, was not many in the initial years. The annual recurring expenditure proposed by the Nathan Committee for the university was Rs 1.3 million but Sir Pravash Mitter, education minister of the Bengal government, reduced it to Rs 500,000. A fund of about Rs 5.6 million built up by the government of India for capital expenditure on the university, when transferred to the Bengal government for disbursement, was merged by Mitter with provincial funds. Only Rs 900,000 was released on the plea that 'the Dhaka University was in possession of an extensive area of land and many buildings of the government of Bengal'.
On top of this, the education minister directed the university to retrench and restrict expenditure to stay within the recurring grant of Rs 500,000. The retrenchment was felt most severely in the departments of Islamic Studies, English, Chemistry and Economics. Mr Hartog also referred to the rumour spread by activists of the non-cooperation movement that the tuition fee for an undergraduate student of the university was raised from Rs 8 to Rs 60. This discouraged admission in the opening session in 1921. Hartog, however, reported to the annual court meeting of 1922-23 that he felt proud of the achievements of the university. He put the university on a firm footing in his 5-year tenure of dedicated service in it. The advancement of the young university in the direction of academic excellence diligently marked by Hartog was carried forward by able successors such as Prof Harry Langley, AF Rahman, Dr. RC Majumdar, Dr. Mahmood Hasan and others.
[edit] East Pakistan era
The Partition of Bengal in 1947 considerably altered the character of Dhaka University. The East Bengal Educational Ordinance of 1947 added an affiliating character to its residential-cum-teaching model by calling upon it to assume the responsibilities of affiliation and supervision of 55 colleges, which were previously under the University of Calcutta. The university was relieved of this responsibility in 1992 when the National University was created to take over this task.
During World War II the government of India requisitioned some buildings of the university for military use. After Partition, the new government of East Pakistan requisitioned many more of them for offices and residences of government employees. This created an acute problem of accommodation to add to the problem of finance. The Pakistan government was indifferent to the university's needs and planned to move the university away from the city to keep its students out of politics. When General Ayub Khan seized power in October 1958, teachers and students of the university were already in the forefront of protests against the government's attempts to suppress the demands of the East Pakistanis for autonomy and the rightful place for Bengali as a state language of the country. In 1952, police killed some students agitating for a place of honour for their mother tongue. The government responded by replacing the Dacca University Act 1920 by an ordinance in 1961, totally depriving the university of its autonomy and democratic traditions. Termed a 'black law', the ordinance created a suffocating atmosphere in the university. The atmosphere of terror and oppression created in the whole country by successive military regimes led to mass upsurge, and ultimately, to the War of Liberation waged by Bengalis in 1971. Teachers and students of the university were in the forefront of this war and paid a heavy price in blood.
[edit] War of Liberation
The War of Liberation severely crippled Dhaka University's academics when a large number of its distinguished teachers and a considerable number of its students and employees were killed. The teachers, who were killed, include Dr. GC Dev, Dr. ANM Muniruzzaman, Santosh C Bhattacharya, Dr. Jyotirmoy Guha Thakurta, AN Munir Chowdhury, Mofazzal Haider Chowdhury, Dr. Abul Khair, Dr. Serajul Hoque Khan, Rashidul Hasan, Anwar Pasha, Dr. Fazlur Rahman, Giasuddin Ahmed, Dr. Faizul Mohi, Abdul Muktadir, Sarafat Ali, Sadat Ali, AR Khan Khadim, and Anudippayan Bhattachariya. The university's chief medical officer, Dr. Mohammad Mortuza, and a teacher of the University Laboratory School, Mohammad Sadeq were also killed. The emergence of several new universities later did little to ease this burden.
[edit] Faculties
Today, there are 10 faculties, 51 departments, 9 institutes, 18 research centres, 1,345 teachers, about 30,000 students, 18 residential halls and 2 hostels. [2] Two-thirds of the present faculty possesses degrees from universities in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia. Many of them achieved international renown for their scholarship. Many also have the experience of teaching in well-known institutions of higher learning abroad.
- Faculty of Arts
- Faculty of Biological Science
- Faculty of Business Studies
- Faculty of Education
- Faculty of Law
- Faculty of Medicine
- Faculty of PGMR
- Faculty of Pharmacy
- Faculty of Science
- Faculty of Social Science
[edit] Historical Events
From its inception, the University of Dhaka has been a place for many great scholars and scientists. From 1926 - 1945 the renowned physicist Satyendra Nath Bose served as a professor. It was during this period that he published his famous papers in collaboration with Albert Einstein, most notably defining Bose-Einstein condensate.
The university was witness to another historical event, as it was in the campus of Dhaka University that the original Flag of Bangladesh was unfurled for the first time, at a time of national crisis with the Bangladesh Liberation War looming closer. The University saw its share of the genocide initiated by Pakistani dictatorship in 1971, as many pupils and professors were killed in Operation Searchlight by the Pakistan Army.
[edit] Notable alumni and faculty
- Muhammad Yunus, 2006 winner of Nobel Prize in Peace (MA 1965)
- Satyendra Nath Bose, physicist, Professor, Department of Physics
[edit] See also
- Dhaka College
- Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
- Dhaka Medical College and Hospital
- Jahangirnagar University
- Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka
- The University of Asia Pacific
[edit] External links
| List of Public Universities in Bangladesh - edit |
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University of Dhaka • Rajshahi University • Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology • Bangladesh Agricultural University • Chittagong University • Jahangirnagar University • Islamic University • Shahjalal University of Science and Technology • Khulna University • Open University • National University • Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University • Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Agricultural University • Shere Bangla Agricultural University • Patuakhali University of Science and Technology • Hazi Dinesh University of Science and Technology • Moulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani University of Science and Technology • Dhaka University of Engineering and Technology • Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology • Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology • Khulna University of Engineering and Technology • Jagonnath University • Comilla University • Kobi Nazrul University • Noakhali University of Science and Technology |
