The university will have schools of arts, science, social sciences, business studies, law, fine arts as well as other schools to be determined by regulations, the ordinance said. Additional schools may be created by splitting existing schools, merging schools, creating new schools or through some other means.
The schools will operate under the supervision of the Academic Council and will be responsible for teaching, curriculum management and research in their specified subjects.
Here, the term ‘school’ is essentially used as an alternative to faculties. A school refers to an integrated structure of departments or disciplines related to the academic management of a university and acts as an alternative to a faculty. While the Faculties are headed by Deans, the Schools will be headed by a “Head of School”.
In the controversial initial draft, the plan was to introduce separate school-based academic activities for different colleges. For example, it proposed to run science schools on the campuses of Dhaka College, Eden Mohila College and Begum Badrunesa Mohila College. That provision has been removed in the final ordinance.