Pabna District transferred to PUST 30 acres (12 ha) in Rajapur village for construction of a permanent campus.

[8] Over the following months students employed various tactics to press their demands, including a boycott of classes, human chain, sit-in, blockade of the Dhaka-Pabna highway, and confining the vice chancellor in the administration building.

Administrative collapse ensued, causing teachers to form a human chain on 23 December, demanding that a vice chancellor be appointed.

[15] In late August 2016, hundreds of students, frustrated by a long-standing problem of frequent power cuts to the dormitories, torched three of the university's buses in protest.

[18] The board of regents closed PUST in November in response to student protests demanding better transportation, housing, food subsidies, security, and WiFi on campus.

Among their complaints were insufficient classroom space, under-staffing of teachers (particularly in the Architecture, History, and Geography and Environment departments), under-resourced laboratories and library, inadequate student housing, poor quality and expensive food, and a shortage of bus transport.

[24] Ali's term as vice chancellor expired on 5 March 2022 during renewed student and staff protests over allegations of corruption and nepotism on his part.

[7] The Dhaka-Pabna highway passes along the northwest edge of campus and separates it from Pabna Teachers Training College.