CUET Students Set To Resume Classes After Month-Long Stalemate

Overcoming a crippling month-long administrative shutdown and mounting threats of protracted academic session jams, students of Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET) have formally resolved to return to classrooms. However, while withdrawing their "all-out academic shutdown," students and faculty reiterated that they have not retreated from their core demand: the reinstatement of former Vice-Chancellor Prof. Abu Sadat Muhammad Sayem. Concurrently, the CUET Teachers, Officers, and Staff Associations declared they will resume academic duties solely for the welfare of students, while maintaining an uncompromised non-cooperation stance against the newly appointed Vice-Chancellor.

Although students returned to dormitories on Monday, 26 October 2026, following the conclusion of the Durga Puja break, standard lectures remained suspended. According to directives issued by the student movement platform "Reform CUET," academic classes are slated to formally resume on Wednesday, 28 October. Suspended semester examination schedules are anticipated to be reissued ahead of the resumption, while internal planning points toward the synchronous commencement of academic cycles for the fresh Batch '24 across all engineering departments starting 1 November.

The academic détente followed an open letter addressed to faculty members on Sunday, 25 October, wherein student representatives appealed for teaching staff to facilitate an orderly return to academic life. The communication stressed that extensive disruptions had pushed the student body into deep academic vulnerability, explicitly cautioning authorities not to misinterpret class resumption as an abandonment of their protest movement.

Simultaneously, a general meeting presided over by CUET Teachers Association President Prof. Dr. Mohammad Ahsan Ullah, followed by a joint emergency council with the university's Officers and Staff Associations, ratified the decision. A joint resolution confirmed that while faculty will enter lecture halls strictly in the academic interest of students, non-cooperation and administrative strikes against any institutional maneuvers orchestrated by newly appointed VC Prof. Sheikh Shariful Alam will remain in full force. The teachers' forum further demanded fortified perimeter security to block outside intrusions and expressed grave concern over the UGC's advisory committee framework and the convening of online Syndicate meetings bypassing internal campus members.

Student leaders affirmed that the administrative padlock on the Vice-Chancellor’s official residence will remain intact. Protesters cautioned that any attempt by Prof. Sheikh Shariful Alam to enter the campus premises would trigger an immediate reimposition of the all-out shutdown.

The impasse originated on 21 September, when the Ministry of Education abruptly removed sitting CUET Vice-Chancellor Prof. Abu Sadat Muhammad Sayem and appointed Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (KUET) professor Sheikh Shariful Alam to the helm. Rejecting the executive order, the campus community—spanning students, faculty, and administrative staff—had maintained unified picketing and total non-cooperation since 22 September, official sources confirmed. //DBTech/CRH/SMP/MIST//