'We decide what happens inside our campus'

We have no plans to have Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) committees in our university right now. Establishing a formal political organisation like this is actually a violation of our code of conduct. Other private universities are also pretty unified in their decision. 

We decide what happens inside our campus, we have our board of trustees, our faculty members. It is a different thing if something happens outside without our knowledge. Even then our name or logo cannot be used outside without our approval. 

Although internally everybody is aware, we will soon release a notice (the notice has been released since the interview was taken) like NSU, Brac and other universities, saying that we have been operating as a non-political, non-profit educational institution for the last 18 years and our priority is maintaining a safe and secure learning environment for our students. 

The Education Minister has said institutions will decide whether BCL committees will be formed or not, and we agree with her, we think it is a very positive thing. 

Of course as active citizens of the country, students should learn about politics but this political awareness can be created within our university's environment. So many students are studying in private universities and we are not going to do anything so that their safety and security is compromised.

I remember in 2017, all university Vice-Chancellors, along with BoD (board of directors) members and teachers, students etc were invited to a programme, which was held to raise awareness about extremism.

Ministers and a large number of security officials were also present there. During the programme, the then BCL leader all of a sudden announced that the Holey Artisan incident happened because they were not present in private universities! It was wrong to make such a generalised statement because of the misconduct of a few students. 

We at ULAB are very confident that nothing untoward is going to happen. Nobody wants it to happen, not the alumni, parents, and even the media. What good changes will BCL committees in our university bring that we will not be able to bring for our students otherwise? 

Professor Imran Rahman is the vice chancellor of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB)

As narrated to The Business Standard over the phone.