University of Dhaka led the nation in different crisis periods in the past. But in the recent fight against coronavirus, the institution is yet to make any significant contributions on how to overcome the challenges lying ahead.
The university authorities claim it has the ability to develop coronavirus detection kit, and it has already informed the health ministry of its capability, but to no avail.
DU Vice-chancellor Prof Dr Md Akhtaruzzaman said his university is ready to develop the kit if it gets support from the government.
On March 28, DU formed a “Coronavirus Response Co-ordination Team”, he said.
The technical committee informed the health ministry of the university’s logistics and expertise on March 29. But the committee said there is no response from the ministry yet though one month has elapsed.
The university has four real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) machines that can examine 400-500 samples every single day.
Convener of the DU technical committee Professor Dr Sharif Akhtaruzzaman said there might be crisis of coronavirus detection test kits in the days to come.
To face this challenge, the university has formed the committee, he added.
Professor Dr Mamun Ahmed, a member of the committee, said the university sent a letter to the relevant government body mentioning what the university can do in this situation.
In the letter, he said, it was mentioned that DU had laboratory and logistics that could be used for detecting coronavirus.
Second, the university has technical manpower and experts who can train others.
Third, DU has the capacity to make test kit at a cheaper price.
The university in its letter to health ministry around a month back mentioned those specific proposals, he said, adding that they had yet to get any response from the ministry concerned.
However, some teachers of the university think otherwise.
The lack of research budget and environment, teachers’ political affiliations, and a lack of coordination among teachers are all responsible for why the university cannot play a role in this crisis, they observed.
A DU teacher on condition of anonymity said the university has not given importance to research for a long time.
Moreover, the majority of the government allocation goes to salary-allowance of the university’s employees and other purposes; as a result, there is a limited allocation for research, he said.
There is also a lack of closeness among faculty members for which they cannot conduct research together, plus teachers are divided into different political camps, he observed.
DU allocated Tk810.42 crore for the 2019-20 fiscal year. Of the total amount, research allocation was Tk16.86 crore which was 2.1 percent of the whole budget. In the running fiscal, the total allocation has increased by 9.35 percent but the research budget has decreased by 2.84 percent.
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