Professor Dr Md Hazrat Ali has formally taken charge as the interim Vice-Chancellor of Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (KUET), following a two-month-long student agitation demanding administrative changes.

He assumed office at 9:30am on Saturday (May 3), and later chaired a coordination meeting with faculty deans, department heads, directors and hall provosts at the university’s administrative building.

Professor Hazrat Ali, a senior academic from the Department of Civil Engineering at Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET), was appointed to the post on 1 May. He was welcomed by KUET students upon his arrival on campus Friday night.

An experienced academic, Professor Hazrat Ali began his teaching career at CUET in 1989. Over the years, he has served in various leadership roles including Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Planning, and Head of the Civil Engineering Department. 

He also held several key administrative positions such as Director of Research and Extension, Planning and Development, and the Institutional Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC).

In addition to his domestic academic contributions, he has taught at universities abroad and served as project director in multiple national and international projects. He has published over 50 research papers in local and international journals.

A graduate of KUET (then BIT Khulna), Dr Hazrat Ali earned his MSc from the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand and a PhD in Applied Water Resources Engineering from Universiti Putra Malaysia. He hails from Chapainawabganj district.

His appointment comes after the Ministry of Education removed former Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Muhammad Mashud and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Sheikh Shariful Alam on 25 April, in response to student protests over a violent campus incident on 18 February.

SMS/