Dhaka University investigating plagiarism charges against five teachers

Dhaka University has launched investigations into charges of plagiarism against five teachers.

The university formed two committees to dig into three allegations of plagiarism at a Syndicate meeting on Tuesday night, its members said.

Syndicate member Professor ASM Maksud Kamal told bdnews24.com that Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor Nasreen Ahmed is heading the two committees, which were given four weeks to submit their reports.

Another member of the Syndicate, Neelima Akhter, said one of the committees was tasked with investigating the allegation of plagiarism against mass communication and journalism department Associate Professor Samia Rahman and criminology department lecturer Syed Mahfujul Haque Marjan.

A foreign journal brought the allegation against them, Neelima said.

"It alleged they had copied and pasted a number of pages in two of their research works from an article published in the journal," she said.

Another member of the Syndicate said the editor of Chicago Journal brought the allegation against Samia and Marjan.

Samia, now Head of Current Affairs at private station News 24, had worked in Ekattor TV, NTV and Ekushey TV.

Journalism student Marjan is also working in Ekattor TV.

The other committee was formed to investigate similar allegations against tourism and hospitality management department assistant professors Ruhul Amin, Nusrat Jahan, and Bodruzzaman Bhuiyan.

A senior teacher of a selection committee in the department has found similarities in articles written by Ruhul Amin and Nusrat Jahan, in which they used the same subject, Neelima said.

Nusrat Jahan also brought the allegation of plagiarism in PhD thesis of Bodiuzzaman, according to the Syndicate member.