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Human Rights Watch (HRW) has claimed that hundreds of teachers and students at public universities in Bangladesh are being unfairly punished over alleged links to former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her party, the Awami League.
According to Human Rights Watch, hundreds of students have faced expulsion, cancellation or withholding of academic certificates, and other obstacles that have seriously disrupted their education.
Several professors have also said that fears of retaliatory measures and harassment are preventing them from properly carrying out their teaching and research responsibilities.
Starting in September 2024, the newly appointed authorities at Dhaka University, the country’s most prestigious university, ordered 44 academics to stop their work and restricted teaching assignments of another 25, without a transparent or credible disciplinary investigation. Subsequently, six of the academics were formally “temporarily suspended” following the findings of an inquiry committee, and similar investigations have now begun against another 14 teachers.
At Bangladesh Agricultural University in Mymensingh, the authorities dismissed, suspended, or removed 12 academics and demoted or restricted the activities of another 34 after setting up an “investigation commission,” though this did not appear to comply with the university’s legally established disciplinary process. And in Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University in Dhaka, 12 academics have been temporarily suspended and another 10 removed from academic activities following an inquiry process that teachers said they were not allowed to attend, an apparent breach of the law covering academic discipline. Another 85 teachers were denied promotions.
In all, over 20 public universities have been affected, Human Rights Watch found.
In March 2025, Dhaka University temporarily suspended 126 students, and withheld their exam certificates, after a fact-finding committee said it had found photographic, video, or social media evidence that they had attacked peaceful protesters. Cases filed with the police allege that another 277 Awami League students were involved. The university authorities have taken no formal action against them, but students and teachers confirmed that they stay away from campus for fear of arrest. Many of those named deny any role in the violence, yet the university has not provided a forum for them to answer the allegations.
Among the academics affected is Professor Mashiur Rahman, from the Dhaka University sociology department, who since 2017 was deputed as a vice-chancellor at another university. He was told to stop all academic and administrative work on September 25, 2024. The allegations against him include claims that during the protests he “directly opposed the movement, calling it illegal, baseless and irrational,” during a July 2024 television discussion, although a video of the broadcast
, reviewed by Human Rights Watch, shows no such comment.
Any acts of revenge against people who peacefully supported the previous government would show that freedoms of speech and assembly are not protected,” Ganguly said. “Universities should be places where people are free to express their views, not places where support is enforced for the government of the day.”
