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Dhaka Day by Day

The International Hostel in City

By M Mahbub Hassan
There Is a general belief that Bangladesh does not have a high quality higher education system. Despite that unhelpful perception, students from around 10 countries are currently studying at Dhaka University and Its constituent institutions.
There Is a separate dormitory to accommodate overseas students. Called the International Hostel, this hall of residence is, unfortunately. beset with various problems.
The hostel's 76 residential rooms arc not enough to accommodate even half the foreign students currently studying in Dhaka. The hall's capacity to accommodate students has been further curtailed with the allotment of 18 rooms to university teachers, thus reducing the actual student accommodation capacity to only 58 rooms.
In an effort to get around the problem, many foreign students seek permission for what is known as "doubling", that is sharing a single room with a friend
Students have to pay Taka 200 per month for this, and married couples have to pay Taka 500 per month. But no receipt is issued by the hostel authorities for these payments for doubling".
University officials told this correspondent that the money taken is used to pay for the extra maintenance cost Incurred as a result of doubling. The officials, however, did not explain why no receipt was issued for the payments.
Foreign students have to suffer much due to residential problem as rented houses,are not, always available for foreign students, as well as being very expensive.
Residents of tKe friterhalional Hostel have long been suffering from an acute scarcity of water. The hostel has no reserve tank of its own. It gets its water from the university's central pumping station, which is available for only three or four hours a day.
Normally the taps go dead around 8 O'clock in the morning and become alive again hardly for one hour in the evening. The suffering students have spoken to the Vice-Chancellor more than once with a hope to getting their problems solved, but In vain, even though they
were assured of immediate improvement
On top of that, many bathroom fittings are obsolete or out of order, with repair work taking a long time.
This hostel for students has no library or common room, and the frequent fluctuations in electricity voltage cause immense problems for those trying to study.
Lack of facilities for recreations adds to the monotony in the lives of the foreign students. In the afternoon, a few are found playing bas ketball or football tn a small patch of grassy land in front of the hall, while most spend their leisure time walking, gossiping or just sitting idle.
Four years ago, the television set and table tennis equipment disappeared and since then the common room has remained barren and useless.
Rubbish is yet another problem, as the cleaning system is not at all satisfactory, with garbages not being taken care of regularly. The backyard of the hostel wears a grim and dirty look, as it never gets the touch of a broom.
Security arrangement is also very flexible and outsiders can easily get into the hostel. Guards arc loo weak to resist unwanted visitors.
A few months ago. two thieves climbed in from the back of the hall, and broke into a room carrying lethal weapons. One of the thieves was caught red-handed and handed over to the police.
However, foreign students residing In the TlMcrNatfOnai Hostel are relatively secure in an otherwise insecure Dhaka University campus Foreign students have alrrlosl no interest in campus politics. Gunshots no longer frighten them as they are never its targets. And unscheduled closures do not require them to leave the hostel.
A Palestinian student, when asked why he decided to study here, said that the violence that occurred here was insignificant compared to what was happening in his motherland.
Not only that, an African student said he believed the quality of education in Bangladesh was somehow better than in his own country.