Amidst students' demonstrations since January 16, the Rajshahi University (RU) authorities yesterday suspended a fee hike but declared to continue evening master's programmes introduced at seven departments of the social science faculty last month.

Rejecting the announcement, over 1,000 demonstrators kept the administrative building locked up for around seven hours till 2:00pm and declared to continue their boycott of classes and exams, which began onThursday.

Moreover, the social science faculty Dean Prof Ansar Uddin, through a press release, declared to indefinitely postpone classes and exams at the faculty from today demanding punitive measures against demonstrators who "created anarchy and misbehaved with teachers in the last three days".

On December 2013, the RU syndicate decided to raise the fees for, among others, honours exams (Tk 50 to Tk 100), course development (Tk 100 to Tk 500) and each copy of certificates (Tk 200 to Tk 500) and marksheets (Tk225 toTk 600).

Vice-Chancellor Prof Muhammad

Mizanuddin made the fee hike suspension announcement at a press briefing at the senate bhaban around 1:20pm yesterday, when the hiked fees were scheduled to have come into effect.

The demonstrators, at a rally on the Shabash Bangladesh playground, demanded scrapping both the decisions of hiking fees and continuing the evening master's programmes, alleging that the suspension was a ploy to stop their movement.

Apart from the evening programmes introduced last month, they also demanded a stop to fresh admissions to those introduced in 2010 at the law and business faculties.