Less than a fortnight after students of the North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology in Arunachal Pradesh agitated for appointment of a regular Director, their counterparts at Assam Women’s University (AWU) are on strike, demanding the appointment of a Vice-Chancellor and adequate teachers to run the university.
The students are also against the State government’s reported move to downgrade the university to a technical institute. The only-for-women university is at Jorhat, 305 km east of Guwahati, and was started in September 2014. On Thursday, students’ unions, adhering to divergent political ideologies, joined the agitation launched by the AWU students more than a week ago. These unions include the All Assam Students’ Union, the Satra Mukti Sangram Samiti, the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and the All India Democratic Women’s Association.
“We want Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to sit down with the students to sort out the issues,” SFI secretary Nirankush Nath said. AWU, whose goal is to “produce 21st century think tanks to effectively carry forward women-centric opportunities,” has 700 students in 15 departments, including health science, business management and tourism.
