P.M. SERAJUL ISLAM, OUR CORRESPONDENT, KUSHTIA:

The 4th convocation of Islamic University (IU) in Kushtia will be held in 7 January, 2018. President Abdul Hamid, also the Chancellor of the university, will chair the convocation, sources at IU registrar office.

The IU will confer certificates on some 38,000 graduates, post-graduates students, MPhil and PhD researchers in the convocation. Contacted, IU acting registrar SM Abdul Latif told that the university authorities are taking all kinds of necessary preparations for smoothly holding the programme.

The authorities imposed restrictions on carrying all kinds of electronic devices, including mobile phone, at its convocation. The decision was made at an emergency meeting of the convocation committee with IU Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr M Harun-Ur-Rashid Askari in the chair, sources at IU proctor office.

IU proctor Professor Dr M Mahbubar Rahman said that the university authorities took the decision on security grounds. They will also set up a stall to store the participants devices safely, he added.

Islamic University is one of the major public universities in Bangladesh and the largest seat of higher education in the south-west part of the country. It is a major international center for an excellent integration of Islamic Studies with the General Studies and Studies of Modern Science and Technology. The university provides both the local and foreign students with the facilities of undergraduate studies, postgraduate research and teaching. The standard of teaching is high and the facilities both for academic and extracurricular activities are of good quality. It is a campus oriented university, where the academic and administrative buildings, residential halls and gymnasium, central cafeteria an auditorium all are on one self-contained 175-acre site at Shantidanga-Dulalpur, beside the Kushtia-Khulna highway and about 24 kms south and 22 kms north of respectively the Kushtia and Jhenidah district-towns.

Islamic University, having started its academic activities on June 28, 1986 now has about 15 thousand regular students studying in 33 Academic Departments under five Faculties. The main objective for establishing Islamic University is "to provide for instruction in theology and other fields of Islamic Studies and comparative jurisprudence and such other branches of learning at Graduate and Postgraduate level as the University may think fit and make provision for research including Post-Doctorate research and training for the advancement and dissemination of knowledge".

Students admitted to the Departments and Institutes of the University have either to reside in or be attached to a hall of residence. This capacity is not enough and students usually live in two adjacent cities, Kushtia and Jheniadah. The administration of a hall is headed by a Provost who is assisted by a number of House Tutors and Assistant House Tutors. Hall names are Saddam Hossain Hall, Shahid Ziaur Rahman Hall, Khaleda Zia Hall, Bangobandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Hall, Begum Fazilatunnesa Mujib Hall
Lalon Shah Hall, Sheikh Hassina Hal, Shake Rasel Hall.

The university has bus to bring those students to the campus. Though the number of the bus is not enough for the vast student community, it is a great facility for the students. The bus schedule for different parts of the Kushtia and Jhenidah district can be found in the bus depot. The service is always available even on university holidays, to help those students who come to university for library or teacher's council.

The University Library, housed in three floor buildings, is one of the biggest in Bangladesh. The Library holds a collection of more than 617,000 volumes, including bound volumes of periodicals. In addition, it has a collection of over 30,000 manuscripts on various languages and a large number of microfilms, microfiche and CDs. It subscribes to over 300 current foreign journals.

The Medical Centre of the Islamic University offers free medical service and free pathological examinations to students, teachers and staffs of the University and family members of the teachers and staffs. The Centre provides service round the clock, seven days a week, with 15 doctors working in different shifts. The Centre also has dental unit, eye unit, x-ray department and two ambulances. The Centre has in its premises arrangement for 05-bed accommodation so that students suffering from such contagious diseases as chicken pox, mumps, etc. may be taken care of in isolation.

The Islamic University organizes sports and other extra-curricular and recreational activities. The Office of the Director of Physical Education provides three types of programmes: Compulsory Physical Education, Certificate Course in coaching major games and sports, and Intramural and Extramural programmes.

In an interview with this reporter, the VC Prof Dr. Rashid Askari claimed that the current situation of the university is quite normal. His administration has taken up an all out plan to make up the losses that have been inflicted to the student’s academic life and he sought cooperation from all quarters for smoothly running the university.

The first convocation of the university was held on 27 April 1993. Since then, a second convocation was held on 5 December 1999 and the third on 28 March 2002. The 4th convocation of Islamic University (IU), Kushtia, will be held on 7 January 2018.