Eight years after their re-affiliation, Dhaka University and its seven affiliated colleges have decided to sever ties.

No new students of the seven colleges would be admitted to the 2024-25 session under DU.

The existing students of the colleges would continue studies under the DU administration, according to the decisions made yesterday.

DU Vice-Chancellor Prof Niaz Ahmed Khan made the announcement after an emergency meeting with the principals of the affiliated colleges at his office.

"The DU administration will ensure that the education of students currently enrolled in the university's ongoing academic programmes is not adversely affected," said the VC after the meeting.

The meeting decided that an expert committee, formed by the education ministry on December 29 last year, will manage the activities of the academic year starting from 2024-2025, according to a press release of the DU.

The release said the committee would decide on the number of seats, admission fees, and other relevant issues from the 2024-2025 session in line with the demands of the students.

The decisions came in the face of a 24-hour ultimatum given by students of the seven colleges yesterday demanding the separation of academic and administrative ties between DU and the colleges. They issued the ultimatum after clashes broke out between students of DU and seven colleges late Sunday and early yesterday.

Hours after the announcement of the decisions, some students of the seven colleges told this newspaper that they see the decision positively as affiliating the colleges with the university had only aggravated academic problems of nearly two lakh students.

They, however, said they were still uncertain over their future.

At a press briefing around 7:00pm, the students issued the government and authorities concerned a fresh 24-hour ultimatum to fulfil their two key demands, including the resignation of DU Pro-Vice-Chancellor Prof Mamun Ahmed, who they claimed misbehaved with a group of students of the seven colleges on Sunday afternoon.

The students demanded immediate withdrawal of police personnel involved in alleged assault on students.

The students warned of boycotting classes and exams if the two demands were not met within 24 hours. They also threatened to lay siege to the New Market Police Station and block DU buses from using their college areas.

The seven colleges are Dhaka College, Eden Mohila College, Begum Badrunnesa Government College, Government Bangla College, Kabi Nazrul Government College, Government Titumir College, and Government Shaheed Suhrawardy College.

There are about 2 lakh regular and irregular students enrolled in graduate and post-graduate programmes at these colleges.

According to DU insiders, the university was not ready to deal with the extra load of administrative work since the beginning.

The lack of necessary resources and preparation at DU worsened the situation at the colleges and it got more complicated as the years ticked by.

DU insiders said the university authorities were "happy" to sever the ties.

However, it is still not clear who would be overseeing the academic and administrative activities of these seven colleges.

Sources in the education ministry said the government is considering establishing a separate university or higher education institution for these colleges.

They said the University Grants Commission (UGC) has already held several meetings with the representatives of the college students about this.

A senior UGC official said that they were working on various "models", but none was finalised.

Dhaka College Principal Prof AKM Elias said the seven colleges would neither be with DU nor with the National University.

"A separate framework will be developed for these colleges upon consultation with teachers and educationists. However, there has been no discussion as to how this would be," he told reporters after yesterday's meeting.

Asked about the students' demand for the resignation of the DU pro-VC, the principal said, "We have presented all six demands of the students. The issues were discussed, but decisions regarding resignations or similar matters are beyond our jurisdiction."

Yesterday's meeting between the DU VC and principals of the colleges decided that the DU administration would ensure that students currently enrolled in the university's academic programmes were not affected in any way.

On Sunday night, students of the seven colleges and DU were locked in sporadic clashes at Nilkhet intersection. The clash continued until 1:00am yesterday with police reportedly lobbing sound grenades to disperse them.

Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) personnel were also deployed.

The situation became normal around 1:30am.

The DU had to suspend all exams and classes at the university for yesterday.

Before the establishment of the National University in 1992, the seven colleges were affiliated with the DU.

After it was formed, the National University took over the responsibilities of the colleges along with other colleges affiliated with other public universities.

In August 2014, then prime minister Sheikh Hasina asked the education ministry to reaffiliate the colleges with respective public universities.

The education ministry in November 2016 decided to start the process by handing over the responsibility for the seven colleges to DU.

On February 17, 2017, the seven colleges were affiliated with the DU. The goal was to improve the quality of education, reduce pressure on the National University, and put an end to session jams at colleges.

After the re-affiliation, delays in announcing examination schedules, conducting examinations, and publishing results became serious.

Since 2017, the college students took to the streets several times demanding an end to session jams, publication of flawless results on time, establishment of an administrative building for them, publication of academic calendar, holding examinations on time, and fair evaluation of answer scripts.

Sources said that a "personal rivalry" between  then DU VC Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique and National University VC Harun-or-Rashid allegedly caused a lack of coordination between the two institutions, with the two VCs blaming each other for the disruptions in academic activities.

In October last year, the college students started demanding the establishment of an independent university. To press home their demand, they blocked Nilkhet intersection on October 21 for several hours.

Abdur Rahman, a student of Dhaka College and one of the protesters, said, "An independent university for these seven colleges is the only option forward. The seven colleges should be governed by an interim administration without any involvement from the Dhaka University authorities until an independent university is established."