Students of the seven government colleges in the capital affiliated to Dhaka University (DU) on Saturday rejected the 13-member Reform Commission formed by the Education Ministry and demanded establishment of an autonomous university for the institutions.
Holding a press conference at Dhaka College Auditorium, the agitating students issued a three-day ultimatum to form a 'University Transformation Commission'.
However, they expressed anger because there was no student representative in the 13-member committee of the Ministry to resolve the academic and administrative crisis in the seven colleges.
If the government does not form a commission by Tuesday to begin process for establishment of an independent university for the seven colleges, the protesters warned of waging tougher movement.
On behalf of the protesters, one of the movement coordinators Sabrina Sultana read out from a written statement.
The protesters said they initially welcomed the Reform Committee.
They, however, said nothing was mentioned in the notification of the Ministry about the aims and objectives of the committee.
"We do not want reforms. We are now agitating for an autonomous university consisting of the seven colleges. We reject the 13 member committee as it's not relevant to our demand," said one of them.
They demanded a commission to establish a university of their own and inclusion of student representatives in the body.
The 13-member committee was formed with Additional Secretary of the Secondary and Higher Education Division Mohammad Khaled Rahim (College Wing) as convener and Deputy Secretary (Government General University) Shahinur Islam as member secretary.
