It’s found that mandatory term/research papers, needed for graduation at universities are available in Nilkhet Market. Students buy them, place their names on top and submit them for appraisal. Instead of assessing their originality, teachers also mark them.
It’s also believed that teachers inspire students to submit readymade thesis papers. Educationists say: “Such work is discouraging the creativity of students.”
Several shops at Baku Shah market sell university thesis, fieldworks and monograms.
The price ranges between Tk 200 and Tk 400.
One student who was found instructing a person in the market to put his name on a pre-written thesis says: “teachers never read the papers; they look at the cover and give the marks.”
Our seniors also graduated by following the same rule, said the brazen faced student.
Dr Mohammad Zillur of Dhaka College admitted to this wide-scale thesis/research paper fraud, saying: “many students do not attend class but come to give the exams and to submit the papers.”
If we find students are able to answer the questions about the term paper during viva, we give pass marks, he added.
However, principal of Dhaka College, Professor Moazzem Hossain Billah said: such practices of submitting commercially manufactured thesis papers do not exist in Dhaka College.”
Associate Professor of marketing in Eden College, Abdul Kader, told Bangla Tribune: “we do not have adequate number of teachers so checking all term papers is often not possible.”
He also refused to accept that thesis papers bought in Nilket are accepted and marked at his college.
Professor Emeritus of Dhaka University, Dr. Sirajul Islam Chowdhury, said: “education has turned into a trade; everything can be purchased from the market, including term papers, research notes etc.”
Without collusion from teachers, such unethical practice cannot exist, he deplored.