Published : 15 Sep 2026, 05:58 AM
Updated : 16 Sep 2026, 11:50 AM
A Dhaka University student has rejected the Dean’s Award, given to the top-performing student in each Bachelor’s discipline, accusing the administration of failing to protect students whose academic lives were disrupted because of their political ideology.
AR Tahseen Jahan from the Department of Development Studies was among 46 students from 16 departments who received the Faculty of Social Sciences’ Dean’s Award on Monday.
She said she had earned the award by securing first position in her department “after four years of hard work, but ultimately made the tough decision to reject it”.
“To me, the prestige of any award does not stand above an institution's moral obligation.”
Tahsin alleged that she was attacked by a mob in 2024 after the July Uprising because of her political ideology and subsequently faced threats that prevented her from appearing for her final viva and submitting her thesis.
She thanked her teachers who helped her complete her degree by allowing her to take the final viva online from a safe location.
Tahseen said she was eventually able to graduate and rebuild her life at Harvard, but said “more than 10,000 students like me” at Dhaka University and other public universities did not get the same opportunity.
She accused university administrations of remaining silent while students’ education and futures were affected, calling it “tacitly supporting the fundamentalist mobs”.
“If democracy has truly been restored following the fall of the government, why are thousands of students still unable to return to their classrooms?” she asked.
Tahseen said her decision was meant to stand with classmates whose “only ‘crime’ was their political ideology", adding: “Justice not served is justice denied."
