Education minister asks NSU to mean business or face music

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid has rubbished North South University's rule that threatened students with rustication because of continued absence for a semester as an eyewash.

The minister said a similar government notification that makes it mandatory for institutions to report 10-day absentees to Upazila authorities was issued even before the NSU's Sunday declaration of action against semester-long absentees.

He asked the university to mean business, understand the gravity of the issue and act. Or else, he threatened the university with "a future that won't be rosy".

He said semesters hardly get over before four months at the very minimum, giving students enough time to return from terror training camps outside the country.

The university has drawn flak from all quarters after some of its students, who had been reported missing for months on end, resurfaced as attackers in the Gulshan and Sholakia terror attacks.