DU teacher’s claim under scrutiny
The Dhaka University authorities have formed a committee to investigate a PhD thesis by a teacher who claims to have interviewed around 13 lakh people in two and a half years for his work — over 1,397 people a day.
Mohammed Nuruddin, a lecturer at the university’s political science department, prepared the thesis titled, “The practices of Marxism and their impact on modern world: the case of objectivization”, in 2009-11.
DU Vice-Chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique yesterday told The Daily Star that the committee was formed on Thursday. Headed by pro-vice-chancellor (academic), the probe body has been asked to submit its report immediately.
Contacted, Pro-VC (academic) Nasreen Ahmad said she was yet to get a formal letter in this regard. She would start the work after receiving the letter.
On June 9, five teachers of the political science department submitted a complaint and relevant documents to the university authorities and sought action against Nuruddin over the matter.
One of the complainants told The Daily Star that Nuruddin had interviewed 12,75,047 people in 80 countries, and as per standard rules, one needs to collect data for his/her thesis within six months.
“It is absurd to collect such a huge amount of data within this time,” the complainant added.
Nuruddin, however, told this correspondent that he had interviewed the people in two and a half years with the help of his friends and well-wishers.
It means he and his friends had to interview over 1,397 people a day.
About the complaint, the teacher said, “They [complainants] are no experts, and they have lodged the complaint out of personal enmity.”
Nuruddin was in the news before. On May 7 this year, he went missing but reappeared on his own at Dighinala Police Station in Khagrachhari on May 9 — around 42 hours after his alleged abduction from Dhaka.
At the time, Nuruddin said he had been abducted from the capital’s Uttara by two of his colleagues and uncle of a woman who at a press conference earlier claimed to be Nuruddin’s wife.
Source: The Daily Star
