Bangladeshi academics’ brief window of freedom may be closing again

When students took to the streets of Dhaka in July 2024, they not only demanded the end of an autocratic regime; they also fought for the soul of Bangladesh’s universities.

Over the previous two decades, higher education had been reduced to a machine for partisan patronage. Public universities were turned into political fiefdoms: trophies for the winner of general elections. And the culture of fear that this instilled among academics was absolute.

Vice-chancellors functioned as district-level party bosses, and student wings acted as paramilitary enforcers in dormitories. Academic decline was a measurable by-product, as research output stagnated and the country’s institutions plummeted in global rankings.

Following the ousting of the Sheikh Hasina regime, the interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, attempted to break this cycle. During its 18-month tenure, it began the Herculean task of depoliticising campus administrations. For a brief window, academic freedom was not just a concept; it was practised. Faculty meetings were no longer scripted, and students could express dissent without fearing a “guest room” interrogation back in their dormitory.

Unfortunately, however, the Yunus administration failed to form the Higher Education Commission that is necessary to navigate the problems in the longer term. Nor was it able to make urgent, sustainable reforms in the short term. And the transition to the elected Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) government in early 2026 has seen the euphoria of liberation severely dampened by the return of a chillingly familiar reality.

Despite campaign rhetoric promising a “New Bangladesh” free from the ghosts of the past, the early actions of the new government suggest that rather than being wrenched from its hinge, the pendulum of patronage has simply swung in the opposite direction.

Within weeks of assuming office, the new government initiated a sweeping “cleanse” of university leadership. Under the guise of removing remnants of autocracy, vice-chancellors at premier institutions – including the University of Dhaka, Rajshahi University and Chittagong University – were replaced in rapid succession. And what is the common denominator among the new appointees? Not their teaching excellence, administrative skills or research metrics but their longstanding membership of the pro-BNP teachers’ associations, such as Dhaka’s Sada Dal (White Panel), that contest teachers’ association (academic union) elections every year.

Bangladesh’s education minister, A. N. M. Ehsanul Hoque Milan, defended the appointments by arguing that political alignment should not be a disqualifier for those with academic merit. But this supposedly “politically blind” approach to appointments is exactly what hollowed out the system in the first place. When a university’s chief executive is chosen based on their proximity to the prime minister’s office rather than their vision for pedagogy or research, the message to the faculty is clear: loyalty is the currency of career advancement.

The consequences of this regression are immediate. We are already seeing reports of “counter-purges” in faculty lounges, whereby those perceived to be insufficiently loyal to the new order are marginalised. The threat to academic freedom today is more subtle than the street violence conducted by pro-Sheikh Hasina students in recent years, but it is no less dangerous. It manifests as self-censorship among researchers, who fear that investigating sensitive socio-political issues might jeopardise their institutional standing or professional advancement.

If Bangladesh is to ever see its universities reach the top tiers of global rankings, it must realise that institutional autonomy, academic freedom and meritocratic hiring are basic structural requirements. The “musical chairs” of partisan appointments must end. This requires the establishment of an independent, statutory search committee for vice-chancellors, empowered to scout for talent both domestically and globally shielded from the whims of the Ministry of Education.

It is very sad to say it but Bangladesh’s universities are, once again, at a crossroads. They can either become the engines of a modern, knowledge-based economy or remain the fearful, underperforming spoils – and victims – of political war. A fundamental redesign of university governance focusing on academic freedom is imperative.

For the sake of the nation’s intellectual future, the new government must have the courage to let go of the steering wheel and allow Bangladesh’s universities, finally, to steer their own courses.

Sheikh Nahid Neazy is an associate professor of English at Stamford University Bangladesh, a private university in Dhaka.