In February, I applied to return home and teach at BRAC University, one of Bangladesh’s most prominent private institutions.

I was excited. I had cleared two interviews, submitted all the required documents, and on April 28, I received a confirmation email welcoming me to the School of General Education. An official offer letter followed on May 9, naming June 1 as my joining date.

So, following HR's advice, I began wrapping up my life in the U.K.

At the time, I was employed as an Assessment Officer at the University of Oxford. A role I had earned through years of hard work, including a Chevening Scholarship and a Master’s from the Institute of Education at University College London–ranked the world’s number one school for education.

Before that, I had worked at BRAC University itself and completed a second Master’s degree there. In fact, BRAC had twice featured my academic and professional achievements on its official website and social media channels.

But on May 15–just days before my scheduled departure–BRAC University abruptly and unilaterally suspended my offer letter without explanation.

There was no phone call, no warning. Just a cold, impersonal email, signed by the same HR officer who had guided me through the entire hiring process.

When I reached out to ask for clarification, there was no reply. When I contacted the Dean of the School of General Education, I was referred back to HR, who still offered no explanation.

The very official who had facilitated my appointment now claimed ignorance. It felt like a calculated silence, not an administrative error.

By then, I had already handed in my resignation at Oxford, where my replacement had been hired. My return ticket was booked. My departure, irreversible. I was left in professional limbo–my future derailed by an institution that refuses to account for its actions.

What could possibly go wrong?

The offer letter had one conditional clause: satisfactory background verification. I have no criminal record. But I am a Madrasa graduate who occasionally expresses opinions online–often in support of July-centric activism.

Could that have raised red flags in someone’s office? If so, BRAC University has not had the decency to say it aloud.

No official has explained what was found–or if anything was even reviewed. I contacted four individuals directly involved in the hiring process. None responded with any clarity. The silence seemed deliberate.

Is a candidate not entitled to know why their job offer was revoked? Under both the Right to Information Act (2009) and the Bangladesh Labor Act (2006), I am.

These laws explicitly guarantee a citizen’s right to be informed of the grounds for employment decisions, including terminations or rescinded offers.

BRAC University’s refusal to answer is thus not only unethical–it may be unlawful. And if there is no justifiable reason, then this is not a clerical oversight. It is targeted discrimination.

A second question also arises: was it my mistake to resign from my Oxford post based on an unfinalized offer? Was I naïve to take BRAC’s word?

Let’s be clear. The offer letter stated a specific joining date–June 1. HR officials advised me as early as April 30 to begin preparations and resign in good time. That is what I did.

I followed their guidance, assuming, as anyone would, that the institution was operating in good faith.

So if background verification was incomplete, why instruct me to resign so early? And if the cancellation had nothing to do with background checks, what was the real reason?

Why the evasion? Why the silence?

Online criticism and support

Institutions like BRAC University must be held to higher standards. They cannot operate behind bureaucratic smoke screens while casually derailing the lives and careers of people they claim to recruit.

Transparency isn’t optional. It's a minimum standard of decency–and BRAC has failed to meet even that.

When I posted about this on my facebook page, some accused me of having irresponsibly alleged discrimination–claiming I invoked my Madrasa background or supposed political views without presenting evidence.

Let me be clear: I never made such a direct accusation. What I did–what any reasonable person would do–was pose a legitimate question.

If BRAC University’s offer was contingent solely on a “satisfactory background verification,” and if I have no criminal record, no allegations of professional misconduct, and was deemed qualified enough to pass two rounds of interviews and full documentation checks, then what exactly in my background disqualified me?

Their silence, not my speculation, raised that question.

This isn’t essentially just about one job offer gone wrong. It’s about the culture of opacity and impunity in our academic institutions. A system where administrators feel no obligation to be transparent, even when their decisions have life-altering consequences. Where loyalty, excellence, and integrity are disposable.

I chose to leave one of the world’s leading universities to return to Bangladesh because I believed I could contribute to its education system. BRAC University responded by pulling the rug out from under me–quietly, carelessly, and without explanation.

This silence speaks volumes.

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Jaber Ubaed is an UK-based academic and scholar