Barishal University witnessed a record number of promotions this week, of both academic and non-academic staff and officials.
The university registrar's office issued promotion letters to 40 teachers, 15 officials, 27 staff over Monday and Tuesday.
Although the bloated number has drawn attention to their eligibility, the university maintains only eligible personnel had been promoted following a proper process and policy.
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A university official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the administration had formed a board to prepare a list of eligible persons for promotion. In fact several people who were also long due for promotions, again failed to make the cut. Some of them even made it as far as an oral exam that was part of the process.
Welcoming the university's move, Barisal University Officers Association President Bahauddin Golap said, "The university never saw the promotion of these many teachers, officials and staff at the same time."
Bahauddin did however call for some changes in the university's promotions policy.
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Barishal University Vice-Chancellor (VC) Dr Md Sadequl Arefin said, "Even before I joined, promotions of many, including teachers and officials, were stuck in a bottleneck. I wanted to solve the problem from the beginning. Although Covid-19 slowed down the process, I continued it following the upgradation policy."
About the ones who missed out on the recent promotion, Dr Sadequl said, "They could not be promoted even after attending the viva due to the upgradation policy."
In 2020, around 50 teachers were promoted even in the midst of the shutdown due to Covid-19. Two previous VCs were said to have held back on their promotions.
Teachers and staff who did not get promoted for a long time started demanding promotion almost as soon as Dr Sadequl joined as VC in November 2019.