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Published : 13 Jan 2026, 10:15 PM
Allegations of bias have been made against the Chittagong University administration in the transfer of a first-year student of the Institute of Fine Arts in the 2024-25 session.
Some students allege that Sumaiya Karim, who ranked 91st in the admission test, was allowed to transfer to the Applied Arts department despite others with higher merit positions like 49th and 58th being overlooked.
Sumaiya is a member of the university’s Pritilata Hall parliament.
She was elected as an executive member from the Sanghaboddho Chhatri Jote supported by the Islamic Students’ Association in the Chittagong University Central Students' Union (CUCSU) polls held on Oct 15.
A student of the Institute of Fine Arts told bdnews24.com that six students from the waiting list got a chance to get admitted to “relatively better subjects” in the first-year, with one of them being Sumaiya.
“Despite having a good merit position, we were being deprived of the desired discipline because we got admitted earlier.
“We appealed to the director of the Institute of Fine Arts. In view of the application, migration opportunities were later given and the students [who were behind in the merit list] were given less popular disciplines.”
The student said Sumaiya was transferred from Applied Arts to Printmaking and later returned to Applied Arts under “special consideration”.
According to some students of the Institute of Fine Arts, Sumaiya was initially admitted to the Drama department through the B-1 sub-unit (Drama, Fine Arts, and Music) and attended classes there for three months since July last year.
Sumaiya was later transferred to the Applied Arts department after receiving a notice of vacancy.
After seeing the merit list in the formal migration process of the Institute of Fine Arts, she was sent to the Printmaking department.
The student alleged that Sumaiya was then transferred back to the Applied Arts department on a “special recommendation”.
Sumaiya declined to comment when contacted about allegations of special treatment in admission.
Taslima Akter, director of the Institute of Fine Arts, told bdnews24.com: “We have carried out the migration process based on merit position in accordance with the rules.
“The discipline of the concerned student has been determined based on the verbal recommendation of the vice-chancellor (Academic) and according to rules set by the university.
“Permission was obtained, so the matter is not against the rules and no irregularity occurred.”
About Sumaiya, she added: “Although the discipline is generally determined according to the merit list, the student got the discipline of her choice due to the recommendation.
“The teachers concerned also did not object to this. Similarly, if the complainants also brought recommendations according to the rules, there is no problem with it.”
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Prof Mohammed Shamim Uddin Khan said, “The discipline that was initially assigned to the student was given by mistake.
“She studied in that discipline for about three months because of this error. Later, when the mistake was discovered, she was assigned a different discipline.
“When she raised the matter with me, I asked the director of the Institute of Fine Arts to discuss it and resolve the issue.”
