UGC to act against universities for ignoring sexual harassment complaints
The MoU was signed under a European Union-funded project aimed at preventing sexual and gender-based violence in workplaces, public spaces and the higher education institutions.
University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman Prof. Dr Mamun Ahmed today said merely forming sexual harassment prevention committees at universities is not enough.
All complaints of sexual harassment must be investigated seriously and necessary action to be taken promptly.
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"Although committees have been formed at universities in line with High Court directives, UGC monitoring has found that many of these committees are not functioning properly," he said.
The UGC Chairman made the remarks while addressing a signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the UGC and UN Women at the UGC building here as the chief guest.
The MoU was signed under a European Union-funded project aimed at preventing sexual and gender-based violence in workplaces, public spaces and the higher education institutions.
UGC Secretary Dr Md Fakhrul Islam and UN Women Bangladesh Representative Gitanjali Singh signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.
Prof. Mamun Ahmed said, "Alongside raising awareness, a zero-tolerance policy against sexual harassment must be enforced on every campus to ensure a safe and supportive environment for the female teachers, students, officers and employees."
He further said an initiative is underway to form a national-level monitoring committee comprising representatives of teachers, students, officers and employees, as well as UGC representatives, to coordinate and oversee universities' complaint-handling, redress and preventive activities.
The UGC chairman warned that action would be taken against those universities if they fail to properly discharge their responsibilities regarding sexual harassment related complaints.
Deputy Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Bangladesh Beata Jerna said creating a safe and discrimination-free campus, environment for female teachers, students and employees is essential for ensuring quality education and institutionalizing higher education.
She said the joint initiative of the UGC and the UN Women would play an important role in strengthening institutional capacity in this regard.
Under the MoU, institutional capacity-building and awareness programmes will initially be conducted at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST), Khulna University (KU), Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur (BRU'R), Daffodil International University (DIU) and American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB).
The ceremony was informed that, according to a 2024 survey by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), 16 percent of young women aged between 20 and 24 had experienced technology-facilitated gender-based violence.
The event was chaired by UGC Director of International Cooperation Division Dr Sultan Mahmud Bhuiyan. Vice-chancellors of different universities, heads of sexual harassment prevention committees and senior officials of the UGC and the UN Women were present.
