Notice

In reference to the article published in your newspaper titled “800 DU students face uncertainty” dated 29th May 2023, the Department of Finance would like to place the following rejoinder to provide additional context for your readers. We strongly believe that the readers deserve to know the entire background to form an informed opinion.

The informational content of the report titled “800 DU students face uncertainty” is incomplete and partial. The second mid-week of the Department of Finance was scheduled to be held from December 04-December 08, 2022, according to the academic calendar communicated with the students on September 18, 2022. On December 05, 2022, one of the class representatives contacted the department chairman around approximately 8 pm in the evening with a request of rescheduling the next day’s exam citing “safety concerns due to the arrival of a large number of people for Bangladesh Chhatra League’s central council meeting”. The Chairman immediately contacted the then-Proctor of the University of Dhaka to verify whether there were any credible security concerns. The chairman was assured that there were no such security concerns that might impair the undertaking of the examination. This was then immediately communicated with the student representative, and he was informed that the exams would go ahead as per schedule. Moreover, he was instructed to communicate this with all batches, and he did so. 

We would like to stress that examinations could be rescheduled by the department on such short notice only if there are emergency circumstances beyond the control of the department, such as strikes, blockades, and natural disasters. None of these were the case on December 06, 2022. Moreover, there were multiple scheduled HSC examinations on December 06, 2022, in various centers throughout Dhaka including in centers within and nearby the Dhaka University campus that weren’t rescheduled as well. Furthermore, all of the university’s student buses were fully operational on December 06, 2022. In the early morning of the exam day, the chairman contacted the controller of examinations of Dhaka University to know whether any decision had been taken to reschedule examinations in light of Bangladesh Chhatra League’s central council meeting. The exam controller informed the chairman that no such decision had been taken. Moreover, the chairman was informed that other departments of Dhaka University also had scheduled exams on that day.

On December 06, 2022, there were five mid-term examinations scheduled for five batches and all of the invigilators were present in the exam centers for the entire duration of the exam to administer it. Of these five batches, all the students of the 23rd batch appeared and sat for the mid-term exam. Unfortunately, the students of the other four batches, in a concerted effort, did not show up for the exams except for five students. Regarding the midterm exam of 8th May 2023 of the current semester, we would like to clarify that we had to reschedule the exam under an emergency circumstance involving the sudden illness of the concerned course teacher. 

The safety of our students is always paramount to the Department of Finance. The department told the students to attend the exams on 06th December 2022 only after being assured by the Proctor of the university that there were no safety issues. Deliberately “skipping” pre-scheduled examinations despite being instructed not to do so is a breach of the academic code of conduct. We would like to conclude that such a violation of academic norms cannot be considered a legitimate reason for rescheduling and retaking the midterm exam.

Department of Finance
University of Dhaka