MP ‘hired eight proxies to sit her university exams’

A Bangladesh member of parliament (MP) has been expelled from a university after the university authorities found she had hired eight different proxies to sit her exams.

Tamanna Nusrat, a member of parliament from the ruling Awami League party who was elected last year to one of the 50 seats reserved for women in Bangladesh’s national parliament, was expelled from Bangladesh Open University after one of her proxies was caught on a private television camera and it was reported by the Nagorik TV channel.

The television report, which was broadcast after the broadcaster confronted one of the women posing as Nusrat, claimed “everyone knew” a proxy was sitting the exam on behalf of the MP but even the examination administrator did not say anything as Nusrat is very influential.

Bangladesh Open University’s Vice-Chancellor, MA Mannan, confirmed to University World News that Nusrat had been expelled from the university. He said the university took the decision in a special meeting on 20 October.

The university also formed a four-member committee headed by Bangladesh Open University’s Social Science Dean, Zahangir Alam, to investigate the incident. Such a committee is a normal university procedure to back the vice-chancellor's decision on permanent expulsion.

The Bangladesh Open University is an off-campus public university established in 1992 with classes conducted through distance learning. Students only have to be present to take their examinations at university centres across the country. The university has some 62 academic programmes, some 533,600 students and 26,600 teachers.

Despite repeated attempts, Nusrat could not be reached by phone for comment.

Nusrat was enrolled at the university for a bachelor degree. The reason why she wanted to get a degree in this way is not clear. However, MPs must provide an affidavit during elections in which they are required to declare their educational backgrounds. In her affidavit, Nusrat declared that she had completed the higher secondary examinations.

Mohammad Ali Zinnah, a professor at the University of Dhaka’s Institute of Education and Research, told University World News he was shocked by the incident. “This is not acceptable. Authorities must take measures so that this type of thing is not repeated,” he said.

However, he maintained that it was not so common at normal universities. “With distance education at the Open University sometimes teachers might not know the students. As such, using a proxy is possible. However, in other universities we all know our students. And it is quite impossible to use a proxy in examinations,” he said.

Zinnah said some incidents had emerged at the University of Dhaka but that strong action had been taken when anyone was caught.

Exam fraud common

Examination fraud and use of proxies has become common in Bangladesh in recent years. Public examination papers are often leaked and cancelled. There have been dozens of incidents in the past few years where students and job-seeking candidates were caught using proxies in recruitment and university admission tests.

In 2016, a University of Dhaka student Jahid Hossain, 18, was arrested while acting as a proxy at a police sub-inspector recruitment test in Chittagong and was jailed for a year. On 11 May in the same year a student, Abdullah Al Jaber, was arrested and sentenced to a year in prison by a mobile court after he was caught sitting for someone else at a bachelor degree level examination in Chittagong. In October last year a student was arrested at Rajshahi University while sitting an exam on behalf of another student.

In February this year Bangladesh’s elite anti-crime and anti-terrorism unit, Rapid Action Battalion, said that they had arrested five members of a fraud ring who acted as proxies at different recruitments and admissions tests.

Mubashar Hasan, a researcher at the University of Oslo in Norway and a regular commentator on Bangladesh issues, said the Nusrat allegation is “a classic case of political corruption”.

“This case, although it took place within the boundary of a classroom, is a depiction of how power, corruption and politics are tied in Bangladesh,” said Mubashar, who was an assistant professor at Bangladesh’s private North South University.