Nepotism, biases at varsity clubs hinder students’ skills development

Shahariar Islam Sovon :
The majority of universities provide multiple clubs that help students develop their leadership abilities, but most of the club authorities rarely pay attention to flourish their skills.

Moreover, nepotism, biases, animosity and club politics are equally disrupting the development of students’ talents and skills at the university club level.

However, it is claimed that, academic institutions in Bangladesh, excepting those in Dhaka and Chattogram, lack the necessary financing to enable their pupils to operate clubs.

In the majority of university clubs, nepotism, biases, and animosity are present.

Many students from different private university clubs told The New Nation that some students receive extra privileges from their club authorities securing top position.

However, they also claimed that this practice affects all committee members and obstructs their path to fulfilling the committee’s mission and vision.

Furthermore, students get scared to expose or discuss all the matters with university authorities because they think something wrong can happen to them.

Most of them do not know how to interact with others, how to write an email, how to formally welcome others but they eagerly wait for the entire semester for a top position in the club whether they deserve it or not.

Prof. Dr. Mohammed Tareque Aziz, Dean of Business Faculty at Green University of Bangladesh, told The New Nation that though majority of the university clubsachieve their goals of developing leadership by dint of struggles the leadership potentialities could not be made unsustainable.

“Club committee members usually work on it prior to the event or competition, but this trend never positively impacts students’ extracurricular activities,” he added.

University authorities should focus on it institutionally to sort out this problem.

Abdur Rahim, Head of Department at University of Asia Pacific, told The New Nation that some students retain positions on specific club committees only as a showpiece.

‘To get extra advantages in political field they use their university clubs title he said.

‘Particular students hold the club committee avoiding any competitive selection method’, he further added.

Abdur Rahim recommended that Club authorities must resort to judicious consideration before announcing committees, and student welfare wings ought to be integrated into each department so that students can get involved in the committees through a rigorous selection process that will benefit them in the long run.

Afrin Laila Shapla, Assistant Professor at Northern University Bangladesh, told The New Nation that when a new club develops, the junior students are inexperienced, and at that time, senior members lead the club.

However, students should first evaluate their aptitude and abilities, and then choose their particular club.

“However, most university clubs never submit their event details to the authorities which hampers the entire team to arrange regular meeting and the EC members pass their times ideally,” students told The New Nation.